


Crimson Seal

by Hawkflight



Category: Naruto
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Attempted Kidnapping, Demisexuality, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Jutsu, Marriage Contracts, Near Death, Surprise Kissing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-31
Updated: 2015-10-13
Packaged: 2018-04-02 02:58:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 44,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4043206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hawkflight/pseuds/Hawkflight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An arrangement has been made between two powerful clans. One that can't be taken back no matter the circumstance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there! I hope you enjoy this new story of mine! Even with it's unusual pairing, since I seem to be a fan of unusual pairings in this fandom (or any fandom... *tweet tweet* ...)

"Eh?" The elder stared across the table for a moment, unblinking before his lips twisted into a scowl. "How could you possibly think we would allow you to wed off our heiress to your younger son?"

Mikoto blinked, not quite expecting the Hyuuga elder to come on so strongly about the issue. She was still surprised at the fact that he was even here. This may have to do with his clan, even his family, but it seemed a bit much. This talk was only suppose to be between them and the brothers. "I just thought it would be the best option. They are around the same age-"

"So? You think your son Sasuke is your own clan heir? Even if he is your choice for the future I can't possibly see why Hinata should join your clan through him. Our clan would be losing her to your own, not the other way around. I could care less about the union of our clans if you insist on giving us a young boy who may - or may not - be as gifted a ninja as his older brother." This one really could talk a lot.

She glanced over to her husband for some guidance on the situation. "Itachi is just beginning his ninja career," Fugaku gave a pointed look to the elder when he looked ready to interrupt for a second time. "But they won't be married for fourteen years. Which goes for either son of mine. There is a reason it's called an arranged marriage, not an instant marriage."

"You-"

"Relax, please." Hiashi seemed to be back to engaging in the conversation now rather than just watching. He turned from the elder then to face the two of them. "I didn't come here to argue with you over the marriage contract. We already agreed on it earlier. Hinata will marry one of your sons, but my father is right. If Hinata is to marry one of them it should be Itachi. He has already proven himself as a capable ninja with his recent graduation from the academy and I'm sure he'll be a chunin within the year with the talent he possess."

"In case my other son doesn't meet your standards later in his life," Fugaku replied, lips pressed into a thin line. "Everyone here knows that's your real thought, so just say it. There's no need to beat around the bush, and if there ever was a time it is gone now."

Hiashi was silent for a moment before nodding. "Yes. I think both our clans would benefit more from such an arrangement."

"Benefit?" The Hyuuga elder was clearly getting prepared for another long rant from the short pause that followed his remark. "The daughter always move to the other clan. Sure, she'll marry your boy and everyone will make some remark about two of the greatest clans in the Leaf Village getting along now, but for the long run? Hinata won't be part of the Main Branch anymore, your brother knows how that works well enough himself. You'll need another kid to take her place and she'll need to be marked with the cursed seal so that-"

"She can still be the Head of the Clan and marry Itachi. There is no reason to place the seal on a child of the Main House." Hizashi may have kept his voice in a controlled tone, his expression a solid mask, but Mikoto could see even the suggestion had rubbed him the wrong way.

The whole exchange would have bothered her a lot more if he hadn't said anything. To put a child through something like that just because they would be marrying into another family? There wasn't anything right about that, but perhaps he was trying to keep his own son from getting the seal. It was always hard to tell if the Hyuuga's had another objective when you spoke with them. For this arrangement though she was even more suspicious.

"There's no need for something like that. Really." Mikoto made a motion with her hands for extra emphasis, a small shake of her head over the matter being presented to her. A ridiculous matter, but she should have guessed the elder would mention it. She supposed she hadn't thought of it as a possibility because the elder wasn't even suppose to be here. So much for planning the whole thing out in her mind. "We've kept the sharingan out of the hands of other villages without any need for a seal. I assure you your daughter will be fine under Itachi's care."

The elder focused on her quickly enough. "So it's finally agreed that she'll be marrying Itachi then?" She gave a nod. "You're not going to go back on your word are you?" A shake of the head. "And how is he handling the arrangement?" And Mikoto was stumped, again.

Fugaku only gave a huff. "What does your two year old granddaughter think about it then? Is this arrangement not for your clan but for the child?"

Before the elder could even begin to rage at her husband - as he so obviously intended from the narrowing of his eyes - Hiashi spoke, voice just above a whisper. "Father, I'm going to have to respectfully ask you to leave. I value your opinions and I'm glad you could attend to give them, but this matter concerns my daughter and I will deal with it as the Head of the Hyuuga Clan."

His father didn't look particularly happy with the dismissal but he got up and left the room. Hizashi remained by his brother's side.

"I apologize for that. I have the contract we previously wrote up with me." Hiashi paused long enough to take the contract from his robes and set it down between them, flipping through to the last page to scrawl down the name of his daughter after making a cut on his thumb. "That should be sufficient."

Mikoto only gave a nod as her husband took the paper next, biting his own thumb before placing Itachi's name next to Hinata's. She reached forward the moment she saw the last curve of the blood against the parchment, focusing her chakra to the only finger beneath the paper as she began to roll it up.

A hand on the contract stopped her from closing it completely. "I will take that." Hizashi was giving her an intent stare, but his byakugan remained inactive.

She gave a smile. "Of course." Mikoto withdrew her hand from the contract, no longer pushing her chakra into the paper. "We'll see you later to store the contract away until Hinata comes of age."


	2. Chapter 2

_Thunk._

The kunai sunk into the target stuck to the tree, the tip sliding through the first layer of bark beneath it before coming to a complete halt. A series of claps could be heard afterward and Itachi turned to smile at the small child that sat on a trunk nearby. "Again! Do it again!" Sasuke cried out, still pressing his hands together repeatedly.

A chuckle sounded off to his right. "You heard him, Itachi. 'Do it again,'" Shisui spoke from his spot on a branch, immediately catching the child's attention.

"Shi! Sui-shi!" Sasuke called out as he reached skyward towards the tree tops. "Flying Su-shi! I wanna fly!"

Itachi couldn't help it, he burst out laughing.

Shisui frowned down at the child from his perch. "I'm not a sushi. You're a sushi." He jabbed a finger down at Sasuke and the child copied him a second later. "Yeah, you're the sushi."

"Flying sushi!" Sasuke turned his finger to point at Shisui this time. "Fly! Fly!" His other hand waved up and down alongside him, mimicking a bird's wing.

"No wonder you can't fly." Shisui remarked, watching as the young child continued to beat his 'wing'. When Sasuke stood up and began to hop up and down on the trunk Shisui launched himself down from the tree, landing on the grass next to him. "No flying for you." His hand settled on Sasuke's head, ruffling his hair. "Silly sushi."

"Su-shi!" the child repeated, reaching up to try and ruffle his hair now.

Shisui dodged the small hand trying to reach his locks, stepping back to look at Itachi who merely grinned at him. "You could try distracting him now, you know?"

"I could," Itachi agreed, but didn't take a step forward to help Shisui with his younger brother. At the moment it was much more entertaining to watch all of this.

"Aren't you helpful?" Shisui said, blinking when Sasuke got a hold of his hair and yanked on it. "Hasn't your mother ever told you not to do that to people?" Shisui was looking back to Sasuke now, his gaze kept flickering between the child and the dark hair he held in his tiny hand.

"Not people! Sushi!" Sasuke announced to which Shisui just sighed as his hair was given another tug.

Itachi chuckled as his friend started to try and uncurl the fingers around his hair. He was starting to consider going to help as Sasuke caught more strands in his fingers when a voice sounded behind him, "Itachi? Oh, Shisui, you're still here too? You two didn't need to watch Sasuke for this long."

He glanced behind him to see his mother coming down the path, giving a grin when Shisui spoke from beyond him, "It's no problem, really. Getting my hair pulled on by a child was on my bucket-list, after all."

Mikoto laughed softly at the scene that must be unfolding itself in front of her. "Sasuke, let go of Shisui's hair."

"Sui?" the child asked, and must have given another yank as Shisui muttered an ow not long after, prompting Sasuke's following laughter.

His mother just smiled though before her gaze settled on him. "I know you both need to leave the village soon but do you have a moment Itachi? I need to speak with you about a family matter."

"Sure." Itachi threw a smile back at his friend behind him. "Sorry, looks like you're on your own for now."

"You owe me, Itachi!" Shisui shouted after him as he walked away, muttering soon after to his young brother. Probably trying to convince the child to let go of his hair yet again.

Itachi followed his mother along the trail until she stopped halfway back to the house. "What did you want to talk about? Is it Sasuke?" There wasn't many other reasons why she couldn't discuss whatever it was in front of him and his friend, Shisui, another member of the Uchiha clan. Typically family matters involved the whole clan, not just his family. He had learned that a couple years ago.

"No. Nothing to do with Sasuke." His mother assured him with a smile. "It's really a future family matter."

Future family matter? The first thing he could think of was that she was going to have another baby, but she wouldn't need to talk to him alone for something like that. Sasuke would definitely be ecstatic at that sort of news. It would probably have been enough to make him let go of Shisui's hair. Which his friend would have been grateful for. If it wasn't about that though there wasn't many other options. "What's going on?"

His mother paused, suddenly not seeming as sure how to say whatever this was about. "You know me and your father were talking with the Hyuuga family, right?" He nodded, knowing when she said the Hyuuga family she meant the Main Branch. Specifically, Hiashi. "And you know he has a daughter?"

He paused, not sure where this was going. Or rather wondering if his mind was playing tricks on him with his own thoughts. Surely his mother wasn't implying what he thought. "Yeah, Hinata Hyuuga."

"Yes!" Mikoto practically jumped in the air at his answer. As if she had won a prize or something. Though this really shouldn't be surprising her. Hinata was as old as his brother and a part of the Hyuuga family, of course he knew who she was. "Hinata," his mother spoke in a calmer voice now. "When she comes of age, sixteen. You are going to marry her-"

He blinked, unable to avoid the sudden compulsion.  _Him_ , Itachi Uchiha marry Hinata Hyuuga? Their families didn't exactly get along. There must have been a lot of convincing on both sides for such a marriage to be agreed upon. Each side had to have something up their sleeve concerning the marriage and he wasn't completely sure which it would benefit more. The Hyuuga could be quite deceptive to get what they wanted, the Branch House was evidence enough of that. His own family wasn't exactly filled with angels either though. They were up to something.

Figuring out what that was could be difficult though. He couldn't exactly ask his own father and mother, the two that would definitely know what was up. Shisui might know something or he might be able to figure it out with some time.

The marriage was still pretty far away which would give him plenty of time to investigate as well. He just needed to figure out what his clan, his parents were up to. He couldn't let them use a little girl in their schemes.

"-Hiashi, me and your father already signed the contract. So it's a settled matter. There won't be any changes made to it anymore since today was our last meeting on it and when we decided on the last few changes," his mother's voice floated back to him as his mind began to take in what she was saying once more.

"The last few changes?"

"Yes. Originally, your brother was going to marry Hinata, but we all decided it would be better if you were the one to marry her." Well, he could certainly understand that with all the angles the two families must be coming at this from. "Are... you okay, Itachi?"

He looked back to her quickly. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'll see you in a couple of days." Itachi walked back with her to where Sasuke was, waiting until she picked him up and was heading back to the house before he turned to Shisui. "Can you tell my squad I'll be a couple minutes late? I'll meet up with them along the way so they don't have to wait for me."

"Sure thing. See you later." Shisui gave a wave before disappearing into the trees.

Itachi took off at a sprint a moment afterward, heading toward the village. He went from one rooftop to the next until he caught sight of the compound below and dropped down to the front door, not wanting to go about this the wrong way. After a series of sharp knocks the door swung open and Hiashi's glaring face was staring straight at him. Itachi started talking immediately, not wanting to give the Hyuuga a chance to interrupt him, "I'm sorry about coming here so late. My mother just told me about the agreement. I was wondering if I could see Hinata, just for a moment," he added quickly. "I have a mission so I can't stay very long, but I wanted to see her before I left."

Hiashi was silent for what felt like a minute before he stepped aside. "Come inside." When Itachi stepped over the threshold the door closed behind him a second later. "Follow me." Hiashi led him down a path to the main house in the compound, walking along the outside until he came to a halt, sliding the door to the room open.

After waiting a moment Itachi stepped past him into the room, his eyes flickered around before settling on the small bundle on top of a mattress in the middle of the room. He walked over quietly, not wanting to wake her, especially at this time of night.

Itachi settled on the ground beside her before turning his gaze on her, pausing. He had seen the unusual hair color before, but only in passing. It wasn't the trademark Hyuuga dark brown, hers was more black, with a tint of purple or blue to it. Right now in the moonlight it was purple, short except for the two long strands in the front on either side of her face. The light even made her skin look paler, and would surely make her white eyes glow. Her smalls arms were currently wrapped around a stuffed leopard, easily twice her size. She looked so... innocent.

And both families were going to use her, but he knew his would be worse. Even with all the time he had before the marriage took place he couldn't waste it. He would need to start looking into the real intentions of this arranged marriage right away. Preferably both families' motives.

He parted the bangs on top of her head, leaning over to press a kiss to her forehead. "I promise I'll keep you safe, Hinata."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just ecstatic that you're all liking this! Don't forget to leave a comment ^.^

The stone slid down, concealing the contract that lied beyond.

It was only the first precation. The only one they really needed. She could sense the chakra moving within the small section of the wall. The edges of the stone seemed to glow as the chakra from the stone and contract merged, her own chakra. It wouldn't have worked if the chakra came from a different source for either the paper or the stone.

Mikoto turned and walked out of the small room, closing the door after her. She pressed her hands to the door a moment later, pouring her chakra into the surface until it filled the whole door to fix the timed seal in place. So it would only open again on the day Hinata would become sixteen. Until then it would remain closed.

Well, unless she opened it herself. Otherwise the seal would stay in place for years, and she had no intention to go and open it beforehand.

This was all to keep the agreement between their two clans safe, and to keep it from prying eyes of other clans or villages. With this another contract couldn't be made with anyone else for either of their clans heirs. Without it well... the Hyuuga clan wouldn't see this door open.

With one last check that the door was sealed Mikoto climbed up the ladder into a back room where Fugaku was waiting for her. "Is it done?"

"It's done," she confirmed, wrapping a single arm around his frame. "Hinata Hyuuga will be the only Hyuuga remaining after we control the village."

Fugaku just nodded, not saying a word. She could understand it though. The clan hadn't made a move yet against the Hokage and even though no one could hear them in here he still didn't want to take that chance.

Because when they did make their move other clans in the village would protect the Hokage. One of them being the Hyuuga's and their byakugan. Which meant they had to go, every single one except Hinata, otherwise the byakugan would be lost.

It would be preferable for them to move quickly on this manner, but this sort of thing took time to plan. Not the whole fourteen years before the door opened, but it would take a couple of them before the clan was ready to attack.

"Did you tell Itachi yet?"

Mikoto glanced up at Fugaku, torn from the morbid thoughts of the future. She really wished there was another way to get back at the village for what they did to the clan, but there was none. "Yes. Inabi said he followed Itachi to the Hyuuga compound. Apparently he went to see Hinata before going on his mission." Which didn't surprise her. Itachi was loyal to his clan and even though this marriage was arranged he would honor it.

**/ / /**

The flame flickered as a breeze slipped through the panels, the light splintering over the walls. It was the only light in the room and with each draft of wind the flame would get smaller, until it blew out entirely, leaving the room pitch black. The continous flow of wind coming into the room though still made it impossible for Hiashi to fall asleep.

That sound of footsteps coming down the hall didn't help either. An erratic series of taps as bare feet met the wood unevely, nearly tripping if a soft curse was any indication.

Hiashi was up from the bed and throwing the door to his room open in the next moment, coming face to face with Iroha. "What is it?"

He didn't reply right away though, breathing heavily, his eyes wider than usual. From the sounds of more people getting up within the compound something was up. Those voices just sounded like whispers from where he was though, very frantic whispers.

All of this noise was too much to take this early in the morning. "Iroha. What is going on?" The whole compound must be awake by now and he still didn't know what the hell was going on.

Iroha must have finally found his voice, "It's the Uchiha residence, sir. Everyone inside was... was killed earlier this morning - night."

" _Everyone_  was killed?" That seemed like an impossibility, and not only because of the sharingan that the clan possessed. Still, that wasn't really what was surprising. Iroha hadn't mentioned a word of who the perpatrators are. They must have gotten away and that's what was worrying. A whole clan murdered before the village could react? These people were dangerous and could easily come after his own clan. He would need to increase security in the compound to make sure the same thing didn't happen here. He would need to speak with the Hokage immedietely so they could actually find these people and-

"Well, there was one survivor."

His gaze and thoughts centered back on Iroha. "Who?"

"Sasuke Uchiha." He wasn't sure what to feel at that moment. Relief? Guilt? It was a good thing that atleast one had survived the massacre and he was certainly relieved that he had never told Hinata about the arranged marriaged yet - there never seemed to be a good time - so he wouldn't have to comfort her over her future husband's death, but that still didn't help him pin down his own thoughts.

With that arranged marriage was he now obligated to take the family-less child in? Surely someone would need to or at the very least send a person over to help the child. Even though there had been less tension surrounding the two families these past few years it wasn't something he felt he could do. Especially without raising suspicions that Sasuke would be joining the clan through marriage. Which he wasn't.

Now that the contract was broken with the death of the whole clan... What did he do? Hinata wouldn't have to know about it, that was for sure. There was no reason to tell her now with this happening. So... now she could just live her life and choose who she married rather than being told when she came home sometime in the future talking about butterflies and some boy, where he would need to shoot those hopes and dreams down instantly because of an agreement when she was merely two years old. Just something that likely would have inevitably happened.

He didn't have to worry about that anymore. Which was certainly something to be relieved about. So the only remaining issue was... "Do they know who did it? Who killed the Uchiha clan but left Sasuke alive?" Sloppy work. That's what that was. A group of people who could kill the most powerful people of that clan without causing a racket, but left a child alive. That child had to have luck on his side to get out of there. "How did Sasuke survive?"

"Sasuke was found inside his own house. It seems he wasn't present for the murder and got there after those events took place." Lucky indeed. "He was sitting in the room where his parents were killed, probably in shock and was taken to the hospital."

It actually took a second for Hiashi to move his tongue, "His parents? What about Itachi?"

"Itachi?" Iroha looked even more distressed than he had when he first arrived at his door. "He's missing. They haven't found his body at the massacre. They say he's the one that did it. Itachi murdered his own family."


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy the latest chapter and tell me what you think!

The classroom is anything but quiet. There seems to be constant shouting within the walls, so loud that it spills out into the morning air and onto the training grounds right next to it.

"But Iruka sensei you said the other day that we would be practicing with the kunai!" This particularly loud yell comes from a rambunctious yellow-haired boy.

"That was before you became incapable of controlling your chakra for the hundredth time, Naruto!" The teacher, Iruka shouted right on back. Laughter filled the classroom seconds later as the boy glanced around nervously, scratching at the back of his head.

"That's not fair!" came a shout in the back of the room. "Naruto should be the only one to stay and focus on chakra control. Everyone else is ready for more kunai practice. Right?"

"Yeah!" Enthusiastic shouts came from around the room.

The teacher actually look lost for a moment, likely overwhelmed from this turn of events. He must not have had to deal with a class like this before in his ninja career. Then his voice was booming over the classroom, "Sit down! Here's what's going to happen today; we're going through a chakra exercise and those that clear it are going outside for kunai practice. Those that don't will be in this classroom improving on their chakra control. Got it?"

The students weren't quite as enthusiastic this time around, in fact a few groaned so it was sufficient to say that some of them were nervous about this sudden change in schedule. The Naruto kid probably wouldn't be the only one staying inside if the nerves got the best of those others as well.

Still, they went through the exercise. Most clearing it easily to run outside with a shout only having to wait for their sensei to finish up inside before he could come outside to supervise their activities.

At least they knew to wait instead of going ahead and maybe getting injured in the process. Though if they got injured their sensei wasn't as likely to yell at them, even so it wasn't what any of the students would want.

Those outside even quieted down a bit upon coming outside. It was almost ironic since such shouting would be more of an annoyance to other classes if they were in their own classroom rather that in the training grounds. Some seemed to calm down merely because their loud friends were still inside with the sensei, finishing the last few exercises needed until the class continued with the original plans.

"Can't Iruka sensei go faster?" A blonde asked, hair pulled up into a long ponytail that was currently slung over her shoulder as she leaned against a tree.

"Stop complaining. He'll be out in a moment."

"Oh, please. With Naruto in there it'll take him half the class time to get out here after he's done yelling at him, instructing him how to control chakra, and making sure that idiot is doing it properly so he can come out here and not be stuck in there baby-sitting him the whole time."

There was a groan from the other kid. "Do you have a patient bone in your body?"

The girl's eyes narrowed and she scowled at the boy. "All your bones are beyond patient, they're downright lazy Shikamaru!"

With another groan Shikamaru turned away from the girl toward the others. "You're such a drag, Ino."

Almost immediately a yell filled the air, "What did you just say?"

Ino looked ready to hit Shikamaru when he fell sideways and pointed to another student, "Look, you're still not-boyfriend is being 'stolen' away from you once again." Her head swung up so quickly that the air made a  _snap_ , gaze settling on a pinkette across the open space that was sitting next to Sasuke Uchiha.

She was up and moving over towards them in the next instant, leaving behind a relieved Shikamaru. "Sasuke," Ino called over in a much sweeter voice than she had used with the other student. "We should pair up for the kunai practice."

"I'm paired with Sasuke," the pinkette snapped back the moment Ino headed toward them.

It didn't take long before that argument escalated and the two were shouting back and forth at each other even though they were barely a foot away from each other. Everyone that was outside just stared at the spectacle. Itachi couldn't look away either, but probably not for the same reason as the others.

He hadn't known that two girls were actively fighting over Sasuke until today. Sure, he had heard some of the young ninja talking about his brother when watching over the kunoichi classes, but he hadn't thought any of them were actually doing anything other than that.

"There's no pairing up for this exercise." Sasuke was getting up from where he had sat now, walking away from both of them. Ino looked shocked but Sakura - who's name he had just learned - was already on Sasuke's heels, chattering away in his ear as if she hadn't just been screaming at the top of her lungs at a rival.

The training grounds were finally quiet again though, the students talking with their inside voices as Iruka walked out from the building. As he had suspected there was a few more students left behind in the classroom with Naruto, but his gaze only flickered over upon seeing Hinata looking toward the windows of the room.

If it weren't for those white eyes he would find it impossible to think of her as a Hyuuga. Her stare wasn't constantly hard like her father's that was more of a constant glare, instead it was much softer, not that she did much staring. Her voice was soft as well, too soft for him to hear where he had currently situated himself unless she made the effort to raise her voice. For now though she had just been observing everyone else, and he could still read her lips if she did speak.

Even her personality wasn't anything like her clan. He couldn't picture her sitting in a room scheming with her father and uncle in the middle of the night. She didn't strike him as someone who could possibly put up a false front and then betray them days later or even the second afterward.

She was just nothing like a Hyuuga, but if he compared her with his own family she didn't fit there either. Even so she was going to be an Uchiha. His mother had made sure of that years ago.

He still couldn't believe what they had been planning to do to this young girl.

If his clan had been around and had their way her clan would have been the one that was slaughtered along with many other civilians that were loyal to their current Hokage. She would be alone like Sasuke was now, and she would hate her new family. There was no way she would be able to remain the person she was now if his clan had gotten everything they wanted.

As it was they just had her, she was the constant in their plan. The one thing that had been guaranteed throughout it all, because they had played the Hyuuga clan when arranging their marriage.

He understood why they had made such a move though. They wouldn't just have the sharingan then, they would also have the byakugan, the last byakugan. Until... well, a few years into the marriage then they would have more and those new members of the clan would have been loyal, probably. If they had their way that is.

They hadn't though. He kept having to remind himself of that nearly every time he looked at her. They hadn't been able to use her like that, to hurt her in every way possible.

It was possible what they had done would still hurt her though and he wanted to avoid that. The problem was that he couldn't avoid this one. When she turned sixteen she would have to marry him even if she was in love with someone else. There was nothing he could do to change that and he had looked into every possibility he could after learning of the seal his mother had used on the contract.

Well, there was a reason that it was a forbidden jutsu. The same reason his clan had used it to secure Hinata in the first place.

He could feel his lips turn into a scowl and forced them back to normal as he gazed at the class throwing the kunai at the targets marked on the trees. Secure. His clan had treated her like an object, like a pet. No, that wasn't quite it. They had treated her like a breeding mare.

It shouldn't be possible for them to still make his blood boil even after they were gone, but he could feel his blood warming. It wasn't just them though. Those Cloud Ninja had tried something similar years ago, just without the marriage contract. They had gone for an abduction when she was so young that they might have been able to trick her into being loyal to the new village. Somehow it made them even more despicable than his own family, it allowed him to direct his anger at them instead of his own clan.

He had been mad at them for most of his life as it was and they were all gone, except for his brother. Itachi didn't want to remain angry at them, and if anything the Cloud Ninja helped with that.

_Hinata Uchiha_... He could remake his clan with her, make it more respectable than it had been. Not the sort of clan it had been before, it could be new. Him, Hinata, Sasuke, and whoever his younger brother married could completely remake the clan.

It wouldn't be his parents original plan, but he knew they would've been proud. If they had been able to change their minds. If Shisui had been able to change them.

The bell ringing cut through his thoughts and he focused his gaze to the front of the school where parents were coming to grab their children before heading home. The area was clearing out quickly but he began shifting on his feet when Hinata was still standing there, and he couldn't see Hiashi below on the streets in the area. That wasn't normal, was it?

Had something changed between now and his last visit? He didn't remember Hiashi being even a second late before so something must have changed for him not to be here even after five minutes.

The space was nearly empty and he saw a fellow student glancing back at Hinata while walking away with their mother. Whatever the change it had to be current. She was clearly only waiting in hope that someone would come by to take her home like most of the other children, but there was no one.

What the hell? After everyone that had tried to take advantage of his daughter Hiashi wasn't having someone keep an eye on her?

With a quick glance and upon seeing no other Hyuuga for five blocks in any direction he dropped from the roof onto the path below, walking around the gate to the front of the school. "Are you waiting for someone?"

"Huh?" She spun around, white eyes wide when she looked at him, but with his appearance changed by his jutsu he knew she couldn't possibly recognize him. Especially since they had never met face to face during the years before the massacre. He doubted Hiashi had even told her about the marriage. "I... y-no." Her shoulders slumped down as the word passed her lips and he had to force his hand to remain at his side instead of trying to comfort her.

Something he could have done in an alternate world. If he was able to treat her properly as his future wife. "What's wrong?" he asked instead. "Where's your father?" Her mother had died before she could even know her so there was no sense asking about the other parent.

"He's at the compound," she muttered in reply, gaze dropping down when she spoke.

His fingers nearly twitched as he stopped himself from brushing her hair out of her face. "Shouldn't he be here? Like the rest of the parents?" he was barely able to stop any anger from slipping into his tone. This wasn't acceptable. The heiress to the Hyuuga clan left out in the open with more than just the Cloud Ninja looking to take the byakugan, but there was always someone looking to have that power. What was Hiashi thinking? That he was in the clear?

"H-he's with Hanabi, t-training. She's the new heiress after I..."

At the crack in her voice he knelt down so he was level with her, his finger already moving over her cheek to wipe away the tear. "I'm going to walk you home, okay?" At the nod of her head he lowered his hand to wrap around her fingers before standing back up and leading her away from the school and back to the compound.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you for the lovely reviews, they make me want to write ^.^

_Dark and warm._

_That's all her senses could tell her. With the blankets drawn up to her chin though she contemplated moving them up further to cover her whole head. So she could giggle when her father entered the room in the morning, asking the large open space where she was and then she could pop out from under the covers to announce her presence by shocking him that she was even there._

_Yes, starting the morning with a game of hide-and-seek would be the best and she knew her father would indulge her. He always did. Even when she creeped up behind him on creaky boards he would act surprised, as if he hadn't heard each step. Though he had mentioned wanting her to try and keep her steps light the next time so he wouldn't hear her. To challenge herself by going on the old boards rather than running across the stone steps in the yard._

_As if it were ever a question that she would try. Of course she would work at moving quietly if it meant he would have a reason to be proud of her. Her father would actually smile then, something he didn't do very often. Especially when he wasn't in the compound._

_Yes, tomorrow she would make him smile. Maybe even the whole day. Wouldn't that be a sight?_

_A giggle escaped her at the thought of everyone else in the clan asking if something was wrong with her father. Other people in the village staying away not because of his scowl, but because of the smile and being even more frightened because of it. Even without knowing what they were thinking it would be funny just coming up with the reasons in her own mind._

_Now if she could just finally go to sleep so that all of this could come to fruition. Hinata grabbed for the edge of her cover, drawing it up further so the sheets covered her lips, her nose peeking out just above it. The air got too stuffy in here around this time of year to move it up anymore. It was already quite..._

_"Huh?"_

_A couple strands of her hair had just moved and another breeze was soon following that one. She didn't remember leaving the door open though. Her father had closed it when he left after tucking her in. Was he still up as well then? Unable to go to sleep?_

_"Papa?" she whispered, opening her eyes only to be greeted by darkness. Her gaze drew up the dark fabric in front of her before resting on a thin open slit around the eyes that looked black as well. "W-who-"_

_Her words were cut short as a hand pressed the sheet against her mouth, silencing her. The hands shifted soon after, the blanket somehow remaining securely over her mouth as she felt herself rise in the air, becoming wrapped up in the blanket before the air was whistling around her._

_She squeezed her eyes shut the moment she could see the moon above her, an outline of a form next to her, the same person that was holding her. Some person. Who was it? She opened her eyes a second later looking toward the face to try and see him more clearly._

_Besides the eyes, a lighter color than she initially thought there was nothing to distinguish this intruder. She couldn't tell if she knew him or not, if he was from the village. Though by how fast he was moving but having to keep turning, changing his direction, he was unfamiliar with the layout. He had to be from another village._

_She could feel her heart start to race in her chest at this revelation and she began to kick out at the person, tiny feet hitting the man's chest, her fists rising to pound at his arms. He showed no reaction though, just glanced down at her for a second as if he had expected to find a fly on his arm._

_A loud thud split her ears in the next second, her own body rocking in the man's grip when he came to a sudden halt. "Get out of my way, you little punk," the words were growled just above her and she stared up at him with wide eyes before getting her legs and arms back in motion. Her mouth opened and closed around the fabric as she tried to cry out. Whoever this intruder was, she didn't want to go with him. She wanted to get away as quickly as possible. Her cheeks were growing hot as tears rolled down her face and all she wanted was to scream. She wanted her father._

_"Put her down, and then you can leave," the other voice was more calm, low in pitch. Another male, but he sounded younger than the one that held her._

_There was a snort above her. "Sure thing,_ kid _." Her captor just sounded annoyed at the interruption in his plans and she felt a surge of panic run through her. If he wasn't intimidated by whoever it was how was she to get back to the compound? To her father?_

_She managed to part her lips slightly even with the fabric stretching across the thin opening and let out a wail just before the intruder's chakra sealed her mouth again with the blanket. The following moments were filled with flashes of light arcing through the air above her, small drops of what looked like rain tearing into dark fabric for drops of crimson to follow soon after._

_It was really all a blur to her, partly from the speed of the two ninjas, partly from the tears caught in her eyes as she tried to cry out again, squirming in the grasp of the intruder. A flare of fire crashed into the dark sleeve, the flame quickly growing over the fabric and then she felt herself falling. As she was let go a scream burst from her lips, the man's chakra no longer able to keep it sealed between having lost his grip and needing to adequately defend himself from the unknown assailant._

_Another pair of hands soon wrapped around her and she glanced up through her tears to see a flash of red, three black dots spinning madly in the iris. "Get out of this village and don't come near Hinata again," his tone had lowered now, holding a threat within it._

_She didn't hear anything, but saw a blaze of fire cross the sky and felt her heart beating again at a normal rate as darkness filled her vision._

Hinata woke up gasping, clothes sticking to her body from the cold sweat that ran across her skin.

It had happened again. That same dream from before, but this was the most she had ever remembered from that night. The most she could recall when the Cloud ninja snuck into her room and tried to take her away from her family. She didn't understand it though. Hiashi, her father had always said he was the one to save her from the intruder. When she had started to remember that frightful night she believed him, but... Those eyes didn't belong to her father.

It left her feeling confused, unsure why he would lie to her about it. What reason could he possibly have for not telling her the truth? If she had started to remember a couple years ago would he have told her then? Or would she still be left in the dark?

There was a creak from outside her door and Hinata activated her byakugan. Upon seeing the outline of her father she sprang to her feet even as he was already turning from the door and threw it open. "Father," she called out softly, not wanting to wake anyone else up. "C-can I ask you so-something?"

He stopped, turning back to her and she felt her skin burn as those eyes settled on her. They were no longer filled with joy but disappointment, the one thing she had come to embody in his eyes. To see the change from her dreams and back to reality made her eyes burn and she had to fight back the tears all over again that she had shed earlier that day. "What is it?" even his voice was more cold around her, only becoming warm when her sister was near and that made her heart nearly convulse in her chest.

"I-it's about the C-cloud Ninja. I was dr-dreaming about it a-again, reliving the m-moment." His eyes finally seemed to soften, but only by a small fraction. "W-when they tried to k-kidnap me, who saved me?"

His eyes hardened almost instantly, sharp enough to cut right through her. "Why are you asking about something you already know? I told you the first time you asked about it."

"But-I-he..." She wanted to disappear, to be back in the hands of that stranger. Surely even with her father's gaze on her she would feel safe then. Like when he held her all those years ago, no longer full of fear. "His eyes were r-red, your's aren't."

Hiashi's mouth had begun to open only to close an instant later. His whole body seemed to have frozen up for a second, a multitude of emotions flashing across his face before he was glaring down at her. "It was a dream, Hinata. Whatever you saw in it doesn't matter. You should know by now that a dream is just a dream."

"But it felt real," the words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.

"Go back to your room," he practically spat the words at her when he spoke and she backed up into the room closing the door quickly behind her, sliding down the frame to sit on the floor.

She couldn't believe such a simple question could get such a reaction out of her father. He had actually looked frightened for a moment, but she had no way to pinpoint the reason. Just that the mention of the red eyes had caused it. She had never actually seen him like that before, perhaps on that night, but she had barely remembered anything even about the person that had saved her.

How is it that she could feel safe around a person she hadn't even met? Not in a traditional sense that is. A similar thing had happened just yesterday when her father failed to pick her up from school like he usually would.

She had allowed someone from another village to bring her back home, had cried in front of them, told them about the fight with her sister to remain heiress. Looking back on it she shouldn't have done that, they could have ended up like the Cloud Ninja and she would have made it ridiculously easy for them to kidnap her. But somehow she had felt comfortable enough around him to tell him that she hadn't remained heiress just because she had been unable to strike her sister in that fight, even when she had a clear opening to do so.

He had even listened to her talk about it the whole way home, only ever offering a comforting word or giving the hand he held a soft squeeze. When she had gotten home the man hadn't left until she was in the compound, telling her everything would be fine. From what had just happened now though she didn't think that was true.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's to sating your curiosity.

The sun was shining as he made his way home, his footwear drumming out a steady beat as he walked. He was surrounded by short stone buildings, mainly shops that occasionally had a house attached on the ground floor rather than it being on the second floor. They would be closing in a few hours when the sun set for the day, but for now they were busy and Sasuke found himself enveloped in sound.

"I'll have a pound of those," a villager said, pointing at something on the cart.

"Sure thing," the owner replied, already grabbing the item and weighing it out before putting it in a bag.

"Apples for sale!" another store owner exclaimed from their own store front.

He steadily began to drown out the voices, first the loud yells, then the usual steady voices, before moving on to the quiet murmurings beneath it all.

"Oh, that's him. It's horrible what happened back then, isn't it? I can't imagine what it must feel like to have not only your family, but your entire clan killed by your elder brother." His feet suddenly refused to move as the villager continued to whisper, "It had to have been awful to go into that house to find his parents dead."

There was a grunted agreement from another one as they lifted something from a shelf. "True, but it's old history now. The real mystery still at this moment is why Itachi did it and why if he killed his parents he didn't kill his brother. Compared to the rest of the clan at the time he was young, inexperienced, and would have died easily if his brother did try and kill him."

"He wasn't there for the massacre, remember?" the other villager pointed out. "His brother disappeared after the clan was killed."

"Itachi hasn't disappeared off the face of the world. Rumor has it that he's with the Akatsuki now."

"The Akatsuki? Isn't that that organization of S-rank criminals?"

"Well, Itachi  _is_  an S-rank criminal so I'm sure it suits him to be around others of his kind."

"Yeah, a group of murderers, just like him. Must be why he chose them as his new family-"

Sasuke couldn't listen to them talk about his brother like that anymore. He turned swiftly on the heel of his foot, his footfalls coming down harder than before as he walked over, eyes narrowed as he felt his very blood become akin to liquid fire in his veins.

They didn't see him until he was standing right there, the two still talking about his clan, his family, his brother, as if no one could hear them just because they were whispering. Well,  _he_  could hear them. "Itachi isn't a murderer and he's  _my_ family so stop talking about both of them." The two became instantly quiet as if they had just been publicly lashed in a town square. "My clan may be dead but that doesn't mean you talk about them as if they're a pile of garbage. They kept the peace in this city before that day, protecting imbeciles like you so respect their memory instead of trampling all over it," his words came out in a growl before he turned away walking down the road quickly and ignoring the looks from anyone that had turned and looked at the spectacle as if it was some sort of circus.

Damn it. He barely restrained himself from kicking a rotten orange in front of him and giving them more to talk about after he left. Because they would start again, but now it would likely be more than just those two. Damn them all. Couldn't they ever shut up about it?

At least it wasn't as common anymore, like in the first year after the massacre it was a large topic of conversation. Granted, most people had the sense to talk about it behind closed doors, but there were some that expressed their opinions openly. Those were the people he really couldn't stand. It had been years now and he would still catch them talking about the massacre as if it had just happened yesterday.

It was even worse when they started talking about the whereabouts of his brother, as if they knew it for a fact. The one might have called it a rumor, but they spoke about it as if it were true. Maybe it was. Maybe his brother was with the Akatsuki now for whatever reason, but that didn't matter. Since everyone thinks Itachi killed the clan it's not like he could come back to the village anyway. They would force him out the moment they saw him, send the Anbu he had been apart of to get him not only out of the village, but out of the country.

If the only place his brother could be without some idiot chasing him away was the Akatsuki then so be it.

The door slammed behind him as he entered the still deserted house. It was disturbing each time he came through the door to not be greeted by his mother and Itachi - when his brother had been home that is, the Anbu had kept him busy most of the time - usually ignored by his father if he was home. It was only in the year before the massacre that his father's attitude about him started to change, telling him he didn't need to follow in Itachi's footsteps, that he should learn at his own pace. His father had been giving him the same respect he had been giving his brother before he was killed. His mother had been kind as always, encouraging him to do his best and bandaging him up when he trained too hard.

Everything had been getting better before that day. That night. When he...

_He was walking back to the house after using his family's private training grounds that would be open to friends and other clan members sometimes. When they got permission or were told that's where one of them was and needed to speak with them that is. Besides those rare occasions it was mostly his brother and him that trained there. Sometimes his mother would be there, but his father rarely went as he was too busy with the police force and likely didn't need the extra practice to keep his ninja skills sharp like mother. Why would he when he got all the practice he needed in the field at work?_

_As the tall buildings were beginning to shrink around him, the cables on shorter poles as he walked he wondered if father would teach him a new Uchiha technique tomorrow. He would have an extra hour before work so it was possible and certainly something for him to look forward to._

_If not though maybe he could convince his brother to help him with his_ _shuriken_ _technique. That would be nice after the days Itachi had spent out on another Anbu mission._

_Or perhaps-_

_He stopped walking, glancing around quickly to find the source that had just made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. There was nothing he could see though; no twisted shadows that might be hiding someone, just silent buildings that contained sleeping villagers. His eyes landed last on a pole for the cables, the place where he had felt eyes the strongest._

_There was nothing there._

_Sasuke sighed, moving his gaze to the Uchiha compound but finding that he couldn't make himself take another step forward. All the lights were out, there wasn't a single candle flickering in a window. That was weird. Most people may be asleep at this time but like with every other clan or village there were a few night owls up as well. Especially in a village of ninja. So why weren't they up while the majority were asleep? Just why? "Why are all the lights out?"_

_Even after speaking aloud no answer came to him and after another second passed he was able to move his feet again and he was running forward. Past the buildings of the village and into the compound, nearly coming to a screeching halt when he saw the bodies that littered the pathway, the blood splattered over stone and glass alike. Just this one path looked as if a river of blood and organs had swept through it. He didn't want to know what the rest of the compound looked life now with his question answered._

_There wasn't any lights on because they were all dead._

_All dead._

_Wait. No... no, no, no._

_"Father! Mother! Brother!" he cried out as he sprinted forward past the ghastly sight of even more bodies, making his way towards his house. A house that looked largely untouched from the gore surrounding it and he dashed inside, calling out for his parents._

_No matter how he raised his voice no answer came to him, just his own voice echoing down the hallways and into large empty rooms. They_ had  _to be here somewhere. Maybe they couldn't answer him?_

_He ran from room to room, stopping at the last door to find himself shaking from head-to-toe. The air was thick with the smell beyond it, of iron, blood. It made his head spin, vision going nearly black as he tried to focus. He knew before he opened the door what he would find._

_Their bodies._

_His mother and father were lying face down on the ground. If it weren't for the angle of their bodies, the blood blooming out around them they could have been asleep. As hard as it would have been he could have thought they had been so tired they just passed out there on the floor. If only their chests rose and fell with a breath, if only._

_His eyes were stinging as he stepped into the room, staring forward at that one patch of floor, unable to tear his gaze away. "Mother," he croaked out. "Father." Sasuke stumbled over the floor boards, barely catching himself on the stained floor as he found himself staring at the blood. His own hands now covered in their blood._

_It felt like an hour had passed by the time he was able to tear his gaze away, smearing blood onto the wall as he stood up. His whole body felt entirely too heavy to be moving around but he made his way across the room, scanning the floor for his brother's body. Looking for drops of blood away from his parents, each with a hole in their chest and a slit throat._

_He didn't want to think about what had happened to them, who had done it. He just wanted to find his brother. Alive. It wouldn't matter if he was injured or bleeding, as long as he wasn't dead like everyone else._

He hadn't found him though. Sasuke remembered stumbling back into that room with his parents, legs collapsing beneath him the instant he stepped inside. The same place the police found him later that night. Everything after that became a blur, just instances of clarity. Like when he first heard someone accuse his brother of killing the entire clan. Just because they couldn't find him.

Sasuke wanted to find him. To ask what had happened that night while he was training so late. To know who had killed everyone. The likelihood of finding him was the equivalent of finding a viper in a coil of rope though. When he became a genin maybe he would have a chance to find him and speak with him. Maybe. He would keep hoping.

Hoping that his life could go back to what it was before that day. Even if it was without his mother and father.

_A clang sounded as the pot connected with the counter. The flow of water coming from the kitchen spout was constant as Mikoto grabbed another dish from the stack to her left while speaking over the constant noise in the room, "So Sasuke, how did the training go over on the grounds today?"_

_"Great," he replied quickly as his gaze was still on Itachi. He hadn't moved or spoken since coming into the room after mother insisted he be there to spend some quality time with the family._

_It was her excuse to see Itachi he supposed since he was hardly ever home after advancing to chunin status. "Itachi? What about you? How did your last mission go?"_

_"Went off without a hitch," his brother finally spoke, his own gaze not lifting from the grains of wood of the table._

_"Oh? What was it for?" Mikoto pressed for more information as she scrubbed at a stubborn dirty plate._

_"Escorting a painter to a small town." Itachi seemed to be giving her the bare minimum of a response. In a sense it was the usual way he spoke, quick and precise, but he seemed almost... tense._

_"A painter? That must have been nice. What sort of paintings did they specialize in?" His mother was obviously fishing for a more dedicated response._

_"Landscapes."_

_Sasuke turned his head just in time to see his mother looking at Itachi, pinching her bottom lip in thought before she was turning back to the sink. "Sasuke." She must have given up on her eldest son. "What did you work on while you were training?" He didn't answer at first, still wondering what was up with his brother until there was a prompting, "Hm?" from his mother._

_"The kunai and taijutsu, mostly the latter," he replied, looking back to his mother now._

_She let out an amused laugh. "You were using the gauntlet, then?"_

_"A bit," he confessed, even though he knew he shouldn't. Mainly because his father said so. Something about him being too young and the gauntlet before for intermediate skills, not beginners to the ninja trade._

_"Don't worry. I'll keep it a secret." Mikoto turned, winking at him before her gaze landed on Itachi. "You'll keep the secret too, won't you Itachi?" she asked with a grin._

_His brother still didn't move, just said, "It's safe with me."_

_"Good to hear it." His mother turned back to the dishes, glancing out the window as rain began to fall. "I hope this weather doesn't continue for the weekend. It would be a waste of some nice family time if we couldn't go out to the training grounds together." There was only a muttered agreement from Itachi. "Hinata's birthday is on Sunday, isn't it?"_

_Sasuke blinked, turning to look at his mother with a raised brow. But she didn't offer up any explanation for such a random announcement, just kept washing the dishes while humming softly under her breath as if she hadn't said a word._


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, your eyes aren't tricking you. I've uploaded two chapters for today.

A bunny sat in the dirt, licking at the pads of it's paws and then swiping them quickly across it's face, sniffing at the air the whole time.

Though it only burst into action when he purposely stepped on a twig, letting it snap beneath his foot. The bunny had sprinted off to disappear into a bush quicker than most ninja could draw and throw a kunai. If he didn't know better he would think it was hypersensitive to sound rather than smell. The only reason it must not have moved before was because it recognized him as human and was probably never chased through the woods by children. To the bunny he wasn't a predator. More like another animal, perhaps a herbivore.

To practically everyone in the ninja world though? He was undoubtedly a predator. Worse, he was a murderer. No, to them he was one of the worst murderers. That's why they fled the moment they caught sight of him. They scattered just like a rabbit would. But an actual specimen of the creature? It could care less if he was near. It didn't know about the perceptions of an entirely different species, it didn't judge him. As long as he didn't sprint toward it, make a sudden noise, or do anything reminiscent of a predator it wasn't going to stop what it was doing. He would need to be perceived as a threat, which he wasn't.

Unless he went into a village then everyone on the street did their best to stay out of his way, ducking into a house, closing the blinds. As if he was going to go after them. As if the Akatsuki would really have a contract on a random civilian. The chances of such a thing were next to zero and yet with the way they hid you had to think they were guilty of something to think someone would want them killed.

It made him wonder just what they had done to react like that. Some of them just reacted that way out of a general fear, but with others you could see how their eyes started to shift, as if trying to pinpoint the person that must have sent money to the Akatsuki. It was ridiculous. Whatever they had done could not be worse than what he or any other member of the Akatsuki had done.

The people they went after were either fellow ninjas or those in a position of power. The common people didn't have enough money to even get in contact with the Akatsuki, never mind setting up a contract for a murder.

Money was a core element that the organization was interested in, and that wasn't including Kakuzu who only joined for the money in the first place. Civilians simply had nothing to worry about, or rather they had one thing, getting caught in the cross-fire.

A sigh passed his lips as he finally emerged from the trees and into a small clearing; there was a campfire situated in the middle, two bed rolls on opposite sides of it at varying angles, a pack situated on another side. The pack was small, just barely larger than the meager fire.

Usually he wouldn't notice such a mundane detail in his own camp, but it hadn't been there when he left and he turned his head to see Kisame lounging on a rock to his far right that was pressed up against the treeline.

"Itachi," his partner greeted with a permanent growl. "Where have you been?"

He considered not answering the question. It didn't particularly matter where he was, nor was it something for Kisame to worry about. Though he was asking, which was rather unusual. But this situation was rather unusual.

Kisame was early from his own mission, already at the meeting point that he had been supposedly hanging around for the last few days. Their Leader, Pein, would disapprove of them not moving as a unit, but after all these years they had become comfortable enough to do this. It was simply a matter of trust, and it was obvious to him that Kisame was questioning that trust he had placed with him.

There was really only one way to go about this without displacing that trust. "Out," he answered. His partner didn't usually pry any further than one question, so he expected another, but not one that was observant.

"Out in the Fire Country?" He said nothing within the first second and Kisame was able to surprise him a second time. "In the direction of the Leaf Village?"

It seemed his trust had been more shaken than he first suspected. He merely glanced at him once more before walking towards his own bed roll, sitting down on the rough fabric before turning back to Kisame. "What is this about, Kisame?" He might as well get down to the source of his partner's troubles, uproot the problem as quickly as possibly so they could go back to headquarters and report in for the month.

"Whenever you're near your old home you get antsy. Like there's something you need to be doing besides our missions. We hadn't been near the border for more than six months and you were getting the same way without being around the country. Then when we did get here it became even worse. You don't sleep as often as a normal person, which in itself can be disturbing, but when we came here? Whatever amount you did sleep was cut in half, and now I'm here just a few hours early and you're no where in the perimeter? Walking back from what appears to be your old village? What reason do you have to go back to that place? What sort of thing would makes you act the way you have been?"

Itachi was silent as he processed all of his partner's words. Considering Kisame wasn't the type to talk so much at once he needed to go over everything carefully. Even so it didn't take him long to find what the problem was.

Him.

Kisame had made comments about his behavior before, usually they were just a small observation. With his history of being a murderer certain actions were seen as odd by his partner, another murderer who didn't quite understand why Itachi acted the way he did at times. Their situations were vastly different and though that was understood, the details were not.

His partner probably thought he was spying on the Akatsuki after taking the time to notice where he had come from.

He would leave his village with updates of what the Akatsuki were doing, but they were few and far in-between. Plus he never made such risky moves when near his old home. He only ever did it when traveling, when he knew specific ninja were in the area. Otherwise his efforts would just be wasted, someone would have noticed what he was doing. But they hadn't. Kisame hadn't. It was likely his partner thought he just got the evidence to tell Pein though.

Since it wasn't true though he wouldn't have to lie for the moment. He did need to give a plausible reason for his behavior though so Kisame would drop the subject and not become wary of him, distrustful. Not after all the progress he had made ever since the night he left Konoha.

Everything currently in his mind was a simple throwaway diversion though, the kind Kisame would usually let slip before going back to his own business. From his own behavior he wouldn't let them slip by this time, the questions would continue until he was satisfied. Which could take awhile.

Itachi exhaled slowly, forcing his mind not to spin so fast. He knew he wouldn't be able to keep it a secret forever, especially from his partner since they usually moved as a unit. Perhaps it was time for him to know. "How long have you been watching me?"

"I noticed it the first time we came near the Fire Country, but chalked it up to your past. After that I occasionally saw the change in your behavior. The only reason I mention it now is because it's become more noticeable over the years and whatever it is it's been affecting more than your sleep lately."

His brow drew down for a moment. He had actually assessed the situation wrong. Was he getting sloppy? He couldn't afford for his senses to dull. Not after what he had seen back at the village. "How?"

"Your rate of reaction for one thing. Whenever that sharingan of yours isn't active you see less than an ant."

He could feel his lips inch down to form a bare frown. An ant? That was an exaggeration. A large one at that, but Kisame wouldn't have used it if he didn't think it was a problem. He wouldn't have mentioned it at all if he wasn't so obviously bothered by it.

It was time then. Time to set his partner's mind at ease, to push the issue to the back of his mind until another member of the Akatsuki noticed. The others would certainly not look at his behavior the same way Kisame did. "I've been distracted lately."

Kisame let out a snort at his words. "By what?"

"The future. My..." He paused, pushing away the memory of what he had seen back there. The idea that the clan would be neglectful of even a former heiress rubbed him the wrong way. It was the same way they treated the Cadet Branch of the House, with only the barest hint of concern. He had seen himself though that there was no seal on her. Yet. "My fiance."

Kisame shifted on the rock, peering at him before voicing the inevitable question, "Your fiance?"

"Hinata Hyuuga, she was the heiress to the clan until a few days ago. Something happened and her sister was made the new heiress." With Kisame's continued silence he continued, "Our clans agreed on a marriage between us years ago, as a way to unite the clans, or that's the explanation they both gave." Kisame nodded, he seemed to understand clan politics well enough. The truth was seldom revealed, especially when the clans involved were well known. "A contract was drawn up. My father and her father signed it with our names. My mother told me later that day, but I don't think Hiashi ever told her."

"So what? You feel guilty for something he failed to do?"

Itachi shook his head. "It's not that. I don't think he told her because he began looking for a way out of it at some point."

"If you mean after the massacre of your clan I could hardly blame him for that, but it's just a contract. It can be broken. So why would he need to tell her at this point?"

Why? His mother. He had recognized her chakra when he found the contract hidden away in the wall. "My clan went through more effort than most to make sure the contract would be honored. The day she turns sixteen is when we get married."

Kisame's eyes narrowed before looking towards the direction of the Fire Country. "He hasn't told her, because he hasn't had to tell her. Is that it?" Kisame didn't wait for him to answer. The Akatsuki member simply turned to look back at him. "You haven't told her either, but you know what's been happening in her life. How do you usually keep an eye on her?"

"Short sporadic visits." His words were met with a chuckle and Itachi relaxed enough to grin at his partner. "I use my genjutsu so no one recognizes me. If anyone ever asks I'm always from a different village, usually a tourist of sorts just wandering the streets. Sometimes the rooftops."

"So... you're guilty of stealing her life?" The small smile slipped from his face. "It wouldn't be stealing if she knew, would it?"

"She doesn't know. Her father will probably never tell her." He felt sickened just thinking about it. "Not even on the day when I come to take her away from them."

Kisame was quiet for more than a minute before he stood up from the rock. "It would freak most out if a stranger came and announced they were to be betrothed on that day. I imagine it will be even more so for her with your particularly colorful history." He wasn't sure he wanted Kisame confirming his own fears when he thought about it often enough as it was. "What if you're not a stranger?"

Itachi didn't bother to stop the frown from forming. "That would be a complicated process." One he would have accepted when he was younger if not for his unpredictable schedule. With everything as it was now he wasn't sure how to approach that. As Kisame had just said, he was a murderer. Of his own clan. Being a complete stranger without that added on would have made it much easier for him to approach her.

"You were a prodigy. Surely it couldn't be that difficult if you actually care for her."


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Deja vu. The window just became a wall. Run!

The birds chirped away, hopping from branch to branch as she walked on the path below unable to focus on their songs after another botched mission.

_"I-I didn't mean to-"_

_"Didn't mean to, you little brat? You nearly crushed my foot!"_

_"It slipped," she muttered, backing up several steps when a pair of eyes narrowed even further at her._

_"Again, you mean. It slipped,_ again _." The furious figure turned swiftly towards her teammates who had been left to gawk at him the moment he exploded at her. "Who's idea was it to put this idiot in an otherwise capable group? Get her out of here and off my property! She's going to ruin the whole project and I'm not paying more for her mistakes!"_

_"There's no need to-"_

_Kiba was swiftly cut off as Kurenai walked from around the building. "That's fine," she said, facing the man. Her gaze moved afterward. "Hinata, why don't you go back to the village? We can finish up here." Even though her voice was soft she felt a fresh wave of disapproval pour over her._

_She stared at her squad leader for a second, feeling her eyes begin to grow hot she looked down quickly. "I'm s-sorry-"_

_"Get out!" The yell made her jump, with her shoulders hunched she sprinted around the man and past her squad into the surrounding trees, to the path that would lead her back to the village._

At least her eyes were no longer warm, she had managed to not cry after being reprimanded like that. If the man were trying to get a trophy for acting like her father he would have gotten a gold. Mainly for having done that in front of her squad. It was one thing her father still hadn't done and that was only because she refused them access into the compound past the front doors. The last thing she wanted was for them to see her being so weak.

How would they ever trust her to be at their backs if they had seen her with her father? Even her grandfather would glare at her, though it had become a lot more common as the years passed on and he did it regardless if she did good in her training or not. Whatever it was about her that had made him upset stumped her. It was almost as if he hated her just for existing.

But that was ridiculous. It had to be. Didn't it?

Her feet stopped underneath her, legs no longer able to move. They shook beneath her, leaving her teetering back and forth, just on the verge of collapsing.

That was it though, wasn't it? He hated her because she was born first, because she had been the original heiress and she didn't add up to the Hyuuga way. She was the first. So she should have been faster, stronger, smarter than her younger sister. She should have been better at everything compared to Hanabi and she wasn't. Unlike her father that had topped Hiazshi in all areas even though he was only born seconds before his brother. She didn't fit in to her grandfather's outlook on life.

That you were either born with the skill or you weren't. She hadn't been born with it. The effort she put in was immense compared to her cousin Neji, who was considered a genius within the clan. Another person her grandfather hated, because he had so much skill and wasn't of the Main Branch. He probably wished Neji had been of the Main Branch so he could be the heir considering he easily surpassed Hanabi as well who was going through extensive training not only for her ninja skills but to be a proper heiress of the clan.

To be just like grandfather and father. Another person to look down on her with disgust as they pounded their views into her small corruptible mind. She couldn't think of anything worse.

To have the person that once looked up to her stare down with a scowl on their face whenever they addressed her. As if she were a lesser being just because she couldn't hold her position as heiress.

She needed to sit down before she fell over.

Hinata reached out quickly to brace herself against a tree as her legs threatened to give away as her mind still spun. Perhaps everything would be better if she had just been born second instead of first. Then maybe her grandfather would smile at her like she had seen others do with there own grandchildren. She didn't think he had ever smiled at her, but she had caught a him doing so before, directed at Hanabi that is. Always Hanabi. Only Hanabi. She wished she could remember a time when that wasn't the case but she was coming up with a blank.

The only thing she was certain of was that her family hated her. That in the future even Hanabi would hate her.

As her hand slid down the rough bark she could smell the iron in the air and she swayed from the overwhelming stench. Her foot braced her before she could fall and she blinked, raising her hand from the tree to turn over and look at the open palm.

"What..."

There was no blood. Not even a scratch. So where was the smell coming from?

She sniffed at the air to have her head spin from the overpowering smell of it. That couldn't possibly be from a minor cut.

After taking a deep breath she turned off the trail, pushing into the undergrowth. The closer she got to the source the more her stomach twisted. This had to be the worst idea she had ever had. But what if the person that was injured needed help? They could be inches from death and if she turned away... she would feel worse than a simple upset stomach.

"H-" she coughed before she could get the word out, forcing the taste of iron from her mouth. It made her wonder if she had gotten a cut inside her mouth as she could taste the blood in the air. Even so she tried again, "Hello-"

Hinata stopped in her tracks as she rounded a tree. In just ten feet of space was a sea of blood on the forest floor, trickling out from slashed throats, deep cuts in the arms and legs of ninja sprawled face first into the dirt. When her lips parted to scream she found herself gagging, a hand pressed near her throat to try and stop the putrid air from getting into her lungs once again.

It wasn't working though. Her mind was spinning as her eyes darted across the ground for a headband that would tell her if they were from her village or not. She hoped they weren't. She didn't want to have to take such terrible news back to the village, but someone would need to be informed regardless if they were from the Hidden Leaf or not.

She raised a foot to take a step forward, grimacing as the blood squelched beneath her sandal, oozing up over the sides. As she was about to take another step forward she hesitated. The blood was still warm, it was still pouring out from the dead. Whoever had done this had done so recently. They could still be here. She shouldn't have come here, but... she had already started and the least she could do was identify their village.

Pressing her lips closed she stepped over to the nearest ninja, crouching down and ignoring the way the edges of her pants grew warm and wet. She extended a hand to the back of the head, curling her fingers around to the front until the the tips brushed against a familiar fabric. Hinata bit down into her lips as she slipped her fingers around it and tugged it up, her body trembling until she saw the insignia on the metal.

These ninja weren't from her village.

She stood back up with the soaked headband in hand, taking a large step-back so she could get out of here quicker than it had taken her to get to the body. As she raised another foot to continue her backwards walk the scent, taste of the blood vanished from the air.

A hand was laid across her mouth and nose, blocking it out. She could feel another slipping around her chest, her whole body being raised above the rippling surface of red. The moment she saw the blood fear pounded reborn through her body. How could she have been so stupid? She should have gone straight to the village, let them sort through this completely by themselves. Now the killers must have come back and she was going to join the other ninja soon, unless she could move.

Her body refused the commands though as she was weaved between the trees until she couldn't see the red pond. She could feel her eyes begin to burn and squeezed them shut, hoping it would be swift.. But that was unlikely after the state she had seen the other ninja in. She really was worthless. A real Hyuuga heiress would never allow herself to be caught off guard, to be killed so easily.

Warm breath ran over her ear and she shivered. This was it. This was-

"Don't scream."

Her eyes snapped open as she felt her heart nearly come to a stop. The hand slipped away from her nose and mouth, moving over her shoulder and down her arm to encircle around her wrist. That voice...

She turned slowly, glancing over her shoulder until she was met with red eyes, three tomoe lying still in the iris. "Ah," the sound that was a cross between a gasp and a soft yell slipped from her lips as she gazed at the orbs, unable to tear her gaze away. An echo of lightning flashed across it in her mind's eye. The darkness of the sky replacing the backdrop of trees all around her.

"Did I frighten you?"

Her eyes widened upon hearing that voice again. This had to be a mirage of sorts, but... "Y-you..." she murmured. Hinata reached up with one hand to rest the tips of her fingers on his cheek, confirming that he was here. He was older, his hair slightly longer, no longer shrouded in shadow. "You're the one that saved me from that Cloud Ninja."

For a second she thought she must be dreaming as he didn't speak immediately. His eyes were drawn to the place where her fingers rested and she could feel a shift of his jaw through the exchange. Those eyes turned back to look at her though and he did speak, "You remember that?"

She nodded her head slowly. "I remembered that night through my dreams."

"Your... You dreamed about me?"

Hinata barely suppressed the urge to giggle at his words. So uncertain... even though she didn't know him very well it seemed uncharacteristic. "Mhm... uh." Her mind had just processed what she had said before and she could feel her cheeks start to grow hot. Upon seeing him about to speak again she let out a squeak and ducked her head down.

How could she have said that? How could she have  _admitted_  that? Dreaming about a person she didn't even know. All that she had ever seen in those dreams was his eyes, the only clear thing she could remember. It was hardly anything to go by.

Though there was his voice as well, she had recognized it even though she hadn't heard it since she was three. But in those dreams he rarely spoke, if at all. Still... her cheeks were growing hotter by the second. As her gaze focused on the ground beneath her she just saw black and white outlined red clouds. That wasn't grass...

"Kya!" When she tried to scramble backward off the fabric, off his lap, she merely tugged herself backwards before nearly face planting into his chest with his arm still wrapped around her.

The only thing that stopped her were his fingers pressed right against her chin, pushing her head back up until her eyes met his once again. His gaze seemed to flicker over her, and then he was leaning down, his lips pressing against her skin right above the brow.

She didn't know it was possible for her skin to heat up even more. "Ah, um..."

"You're cute, Hinata." He pulled away from her shortly after saying the words, leaning back against a tree.

She wasn't certain about that considering she had to be as red as a tomato, but... "Th-thank you-u, umm."

He seemed to understand what she was asking for without asking for it, but it was another second before he answered her unspoken question. "Itachi."

Her mouth opened for a moment, then closed as she stared at him. As she started to actually look at the man in front of her. His sharingan activated, only possessed by him and his brother, Sasuke. The only other surviving member of the Uchiha. That signature black hair, his eyes likely a dark color. How had she not noticed it before? He had killed his entire clan.

She could feel her body tense as she glanced around to just find more trees, bushes, no path in sight. How far had he taken her from the pool of blood? Was he the one that had killed that squad? All by himself? "F-father said yo-you k-killed your c-clan," she muttered as she looked down to the arm that remained secure around her mid-section.

"How is your father?" Hinata looked up quickly, trying to keep the fear out of her eyes even though he must have just heard it in her voice. Did he have something against her father? Was he going to use her to get back at him for something? "Is he treating you well?"

"Huh?" She couldn't resist the small hop she had given at such a question. "M-me?" At the nod of his head she fought to get her tongue to work. "Fa-father spends m-most of his time w-with Hana-abi. The r-rest is gov-governing the clan." She really needed to get out of here, out of his grip before she resembled those shinobi back in the rippling waves of red.

"Hmm." He leaned further against the tree, gaze still on her, unmoving. She stayed perfectly still, wanting to disappear before he figured out how he wanted to gut her. His gaze dropped to her wrist, where his hand now resided, thumb moving slowly over the veins there. "Are you taking part in the upcoming Chunin Exams?"

"I-I don't know." It couldn't hurt to answer the question could it? If he was fishing for information about the exams then all she had to do was not answer those questions. This one though seemed harmless enough. "M-maybe."

He was silent once more and she could hear her heart beating directly into her ears, could feel it pulsing against his thumb. "Then... be safe, okay?"

She peered up at him through her lashes, unsure of what she had just heard pass through his lips. "O-okay." The moment the word had made it out of her mouth she could feel his grip on her loosen, his arm falling away from her body, his hand slipping down her wrist.

Hinata didn't move immediately, staying there for a second in case it was just a trick. He had to be faster than her, if it was a trick he could easily grab her again. After an extended second she was up and on her feet, forcing herself not to run as she walked away even as her mind screamed at her to  _move_. The rest of her body just wouldn't comply to the request and she glanced over her shoulder to see him still sitting against that tree, his lips turning up into a smile after a moment.

She turned back around quickly to hide the smile that had just appeared on her own lips.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick Poll: Favorite Sasuke pairing?
> 
> And half of you should probably know that you missed the first chapter of the two that were uploaded the other day. (deja vu and references to the matrix will always be your hint that you're getting ahead of yourself in my stories)

His gaze kept traveling back to the large gate at the front of the village, still trying to make sense of the situation.

She should have been back by now. Hinata should have been back here before them. She departed from the construction site two- No, it was close to three hours now and she still was no where to be seen.

He had even asked the villagers that were usually around the gate at the time she would have been back. If she had taken the right path, which she had. The whole squad has seen her run right down it and at that pace she would have gotten back to the village even earlier. Still, the ninja that guarded the gate reported no sightings of her, nothing unusual happening.

So why wasn't she back yet?

The mission was done she should have been here. Unless... unless this latest, he nearly sighed aloud. What was the best way to word it? Lack of completion? It was certainly better than using the f-word that Hinata seemed to dread whenever they came back from a mission and she hadn't quite gotten her part right. She always fell short in some aspect.

He could only think of one logical explanation for that though. That it was the pressure of her clan. He knew she wasn't the heiress anymore. Everyone in the village knew that Hanabi was the new heiress, the daughter Hiashi was training to lead the clan one day. According to Kurenai when he spoke with her about it once Hiashi felt Hinata was no longer fit to be heiress. That even though she was born first her sister was more qualified for the position. That Hiashi had been disappointed with his eldest daughter's performance in both the school and now the missions.

The fact that she had not even completed one was not helping matters in the least. So, if she had taken a longer path or stayed out there in the forest to think about this last mission she must be miserable. She certainly didn't smile as often as she used to.

He realized her clan had expected more from her than his did of him, but still. Kiba didn't understand what else she could do to please her father. Besides finish the missions and train her ninja skills more. Was she suppose to take back the heiress title from Hanabi? Would that help at all?

It was a complete mystery to him how the clan operated. Especially since the firstborn was usually made the heir. That had been the case with Hiashi and his brother, Hizashi had become part of the Branch House. So technically Hanabi should be of the Branch House since she was born second, but since she was now the heiress did that make her and Hinata's positions switched? Was Hinata suppose to join the Branch House now?

He had been on the verge of asking Hinata that very question once when Kurenai caught his eye and gave a shake of her head. As if to tell him not to ask her that, as if if he did she would breakdown right there and start crying.

She probably thought they didn't notice or denied that they had seen her upset before after coming out of the compound. Even in the mornings when she must have only been awake for a few minutes her eyes would be a light red from fresh tears. The reason for it was never given, even when she would rub at them occasionally afterward, making sure they were dry.

It bothered him more than he would like that she would walk around as if everything was fine when it obviously wasn't. If she was crying there had to be a problem at that compound. Which was evident in the Main Branch. Hiashi didn't even look at his daughter when she left, always focused on the younger sibling in some strict training session. It was a wonder Hinata's eyes weren't red all the time with the way her own family treated her.

As if she didn't exist.

The other members of the clan didn't do that though. Sure, they were probably upset with her for being knocked out of her position as heiress, but they didn't go to such an extent like her blood-related family did.

Sometimes he wondered if that was what had started this behavior. If it really was the issue of who was heiress or something else entirely. How could a father push their own daughter away so casually? Always giving her the same cold hard stare that he gave complete strangers, talking in a clipped tone to show his constant aggravation.

It was the most ridiculous thing he had ever seen, but he wasn't aloud to talk about it. To ask Hinata what was wrong because she never wanted to talk about it. She acted like it didn't bother her when it did, but he couldn't say a thing until she was ready to sit down with him - or even the squad. She respected Kurenai who had more or less taken Hinata under her wing much like a mother hen would and she wouldn't even talk to her about it.

So all he could do was wait with the rest of them for her to be ready.

Just like he had been doing for nearly two hours. He wished Kurenai had let him tell that man off back there, but she had given him a stern look after Hinata run off. Another cue not to say anything. She certainly seemed to be doing that a lot. There was a rule of silence always hanging over his neck and he beginning to get sick of it. Perhaps he should just ask Hinata what he wanted to ask when Kurenai wasn't around-

A bark sounded from his side, paws pressing hard into his thigh. "What is it, Akamaru?" He asked just before the stench of blood hit his nostrils and he growled at the scent. It was more unexpected than anything, he didn't mind the smell considering his chosen line of work, but he also didn't care to smell so much of it from someone heading toward the village. Such a thing only meant that one of their own was injured and he found that much more displeasing than the smell of iron.

His nose twitched an instant later.

Wait. Just beneath that overpowering scent was one he knew well. "Hinata!" Kiba sprung to his feet, Akamaru already racing forward at his side. He could hear Shino and Kurenai moving behind him as he sped out of the gates and down the road to the source.

It was after rounding a bend that he saw her and nearly slammed to a stop. All that blood he was smelling, it was coming from  _her_. There were streaks of bright red running along her arms and legs, a few specks on her face. Her hands and feet looked like they been dipped in a bucketful of blood. Her sandals were soaked, the bottom of her pants up to her mid-thigh were a deep red and after that there were slashes of blotches of red further up. The white of her jacket had become nearly all red. The only thing that seemed to have survived the red massacre was the top of her shirt and even then he could spot tiny flecks of red scattered along the fabric.

What had happened? How had she gotten back to the village in this state? Unless...

"Hina." He charged the last stretch of land to her, stopping only to take her arm, bringing it up to his face before he sniffed deeply. A sigh escaped him when it didn't register as hers. But if it wasn't hers where had all this blood come from? Had she gone swimming in a pool of it? Where had she come across it? Why hadn't he caught a whiff of it before if she had stayed on the path to the village?

"Hinata, what happened?"

Kurenai's voice broke through his mind then and he glanced to her, needing to share the news first before she really did become a mother hen. "It's not her blood."

"Then whose is it?" Shino was there as well now, slightly more calm after knowing it wasn't their teammates blood but still obviously disturbed by the scene. He was just as worried about Hinata as the rest of the team.

"It's the other nin-ninja's." His gaze went up rather than down like the other two. Her voice just then had seemed to float, up until the end that is and whatever haze she was in she must have broken through. But there was still the remains of a smile on her face, the corner of her lips turned up though they were now falling rapidly to form a frown.

He couldn't imagine a reason for her to be smiling when she was covered in blood from head-to-toe. Something must have happened out there in the forest. Well,  _something_  had clearly happened. He just couldn't imagine it was good.

Hinata got rather squeamish around blood so it didn't make sense that she would be smiling before they approached. Because she had been just before he came around the corner, though his eyes had been drawn to the blood rather than her little grin at the time. Now he was wondering what he had missed. Why was she smiling? Not that he would complain, but...

The moment he smelled her beneath the blood he had thought the worst had happened.. He wouldn't have imagined to see her doing fine, not on the path bleeding to death.

His gaze dropped down then, going to her hand that was clenched around a blood soaked headband. So it had been other ninjas, from another clan. Dead, in their own country.

"Other ninjas?" Kurenai reached forward as she spoke, taking the headband from Hinata's fingers to look more closely at it. "Do you know what happened?"

He caught her shaking her head as his gaze moved back up to look at her. That smile from before was completely gone now. She looked saddened just from thinking about what had happened to the other ninjas. "I-i found them af-after they were k-killed in the f-forest. I could sm-smell the b-blood right off the trail an-and went to i-investigate. That's when I found th-them."

"Did you see who did this?"

His gaze flickered to Kurenai for a moment then back to Hinata. The blood on her clothes was still damp, but the layer in direct contact with her skin had begun to dry on. So it was possible she had seen the culprits. The blood must have still been warm when she found them. And she had gone through it to get to that headband, he wouldn't have thought she would do such a thing. Even just to check what village they were from.

It was a miracle she hadn't collapsed after doing such a thing or during. How had she managed it?

Hinata was still silent, prompting Kurenai to ask the question again, this time more softly. She had to still be in shock after doing such a thing. "I... I didn't see anyone i-in the area, just the b-bodies," Hinata muttered.

"Let's get you to the hospital then."

"Uh, it-it's not-"

"I know it's not your blood, but just in case." Kurenai with the headband still in hand looked to Shino and Kiba. "Get her to the hospital. I'll go report this to the Hokage."

Kiba nodded his head as Shino said, "Of course."

Once Kurenai was off and heading back to the village Kiba took one of Hinata's arms in hand, along with Shino they made their way down the path and back to the gates. Akamaru walking alongside them, continuously sniffing at the air.

He was on the verge of asking his companion what he was looking for when a figure rushed past him to Hinata. "What happened here?" The words were harsh, demanding, something he recognized right away and Kiba turned swiftly to see Hiashi standing in front of his daughter, reaching forward to press a hand to her forehead when she stepped back quickly, smearing the stone below in blood as she nearly slipped backwards.

If not for his and Shino's grip on her arms she would have landed flat on her back, but they were able to steady her even as a sharp cry had pierced the air following the movement. "No!"

Kiba glanced to Hinata to see a hand hovering over her left brow and the patch of skin above it almost protectively, her eyes just barely narrowed at her father. Hiashi had stepped back and - for a split second - he thought he saw surprise register in those cold eyes before the emotion was erased. How odd.

Usually Hinata would be delighted to see her father actually attempting to be such, but right now it was like she hiding from him. Not allowing her own father to touch her. It was almost exactly like that one time years ago...

"Akamaru?" He glanced down at his companion who had jumped onto his back legs and placed the front paws along Hinata's leg when she had been about to fall. Akamaru was sniffing at her pant leg now and at his unspoken question the dog barked in the affirmative.

The same scent from that time before was clinging to her, but could that alone really explain her odd behavior? The smile, this reaction to her father. It really was just like that one time.

_Laughter filled the yard as the colorful unicorn burst apart at the seams, scattering tiny pieces of candy onto the grass below. The one kid that had hit the figure squarely in the belly currently stood motionless, glancing around with the blindfold still over their eyes. "Did I hit it?"_

_It caused Kiba to laugh louder with the rest of the kids that had come for the Hyuuga heiress' birthday. The day was going quite well, even if he found that one aspect annoying._

_The feel of eyes constantly on the courtyard, the smell of not one but two strangers. Though there was only one here. His eyes flickered over to the spot where the scent was strongest. On the edge of a building overlooking the yard a young man sat on the corner of the roof. Shisui Uchiha, the emblem of the clan was prominent on his clothing so there was no mistaking who it was._

_Though why an Uchiha would care to be at any place with a Hyuuga was beyond him. They weren't quite as outwardly hostile as his sister mentioned seeing years ago, but there was still obvious tension between the clans. So it would make no sense that he was here._

_Having the constant feeling of being watched wasn't on his list of activities for today, but it seemed to have stopped just now. He looked back to where the Uchiha had been before his gaze followed his nose to the table of presents. To see a new one lying there on the top just as Hiashi told Hinata to go open her gifts, that the cake would come next._

_The soft pitter-patter of her feet sounded in his ears before he saw her reach the table, and then her hands reaching up to the newest present on top. It didn't contain a card like the others and the packaging itself was plain, but she was grinning as she took hold of it and brought it down from the pile._

_Hinata made short work of the wrapping, tearing it off with a certain glee only possessed on these days. Then she was tugging the lip of the box out from the front and looking inside._

_A voice sounded behind her shortly after, "What did you get?"_

_"Uh." She had closed the lid shortly after hearing his voice and glanced over her shoulder at her father, grinning from ear-to-ear. "It's a secret."_

_That feeling was creeping it's way up the back of his neck again as the other kids moved forward to request the next present she opened or ask to be told what was inside the box. She continued to give her mysterious answers, evidently enjoying the aspect of being secretive._

_His gaze was moving away from her though to another rooftop. To see the outline of Shisui turning around and walking away after all this time. Right after delivering the package and seeing her reaction to what lied within. The package that smelled different from the person that had delivered it._


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those asking for more Ita/Hina you're in luck for this chapter, haha.

He stared out across the street. At the villagers walking in and out of the small shops, restaurants, around the carts lining the street on both sides. Thankfully there was none directly blocking his line of view into the street or else he would have had to ask for a different table as he waited for her.

Hinata.

She had surprised him a few months ago when she stumbled onto the aftermath of one of their missions. Instead of taking off running like he expected most genin would do - since they typically didn't get missions that involved enemy ninja and therefore had never been in a fight to the death or dealt with death up close before - she had investigated the scene a bit, mainly just figuring out who the dead ninja were. He had already known they weren't part of her village, but she hadn't and even though the attack had been recent she had taken one of their headbands to see for herself who the ninja had been.

Most ninja wouldn't do such a thing, for a variety of reasons. Once you reached chunin status you recognized those from your village almost instantly so there was no reason to check a headband and you only brought the bodies back if there wasn't any enemy ninja in the area. You simply didn't stop to look at a body while on a mission or when at war.

It only served to further remind him just how soft she was when it came to the ninja life style. Which wasn't kind or caring, unlike her. It was harsh and could leave you second guessing even your own family. It could lead you to kill them.

His gaze dropped down as he wondered what had even made her consider such an occupation. The only plausible reason he could come up with was her family. When she was younger and heiress the academy would have helped her grow as a ninja, would have helped with some of the skills needed for when she became heiress. If they had kept her as the heiress, they hadn't though. Now she was just doing what she had been trained to do. But was it really what she wanted?

Since the Hyuuga clan obviously didn't want anything to do with her she should do what she wanted. Whatever that was. Regardless the ninja skills were something she still needed, even he could see that. It was obvious with how many people were interested in the byakugan that she needed to be able to defend herself.

For whatever reason her father didn't seem to care about this anymore. Perhaps he had pushed that responsibility to her squad leader, Kurenai. At least that woman cared about Hinata, though he had to question where she and the rest of them had been when Hinata was standing in that pool of blood.

He would have asked her himself if he could be positive that she wouldn't take the question negatively. Itachi was still shocked that had gone as well as it had without some sort of prior plan. Even better after Kisame mentioned seeing her smiling when she was walking away from him.

All of this could have gone a lot better though, a lot easier if his clan didn't have those hidden intentions. If he had been able to follow through with his... well, 'courting' years ago.

_He turned away from the shelf, glancing over another but still not seeing anything that caught his eye. Nothing he could use for the purpose he intended anyway._

_All of it was too fancy, the jewels, the colors. Every single necklace he had seen in this shop already had a focal point, but he needed one without it. Otherwise it completely lost the meaning it held and there was no reason to give something like that to her now._

_She was only five for kami's sake. These pearls, large gems, they weren't needed._

_Just something simple, that's what he needed. Why was it so hard to find?_

_"Itachi, come here." Shisui's voice came from the other side of the store and after a moment of surveying what was in front of him Itachi made his way over. "This is what you're looking for, isn't it?"_

_He was holding up a thin chain made of steel connected by a simple hook in the back. It certainly didn't have a focal point, but... "Too plain."_

_At Shisui's laughter Itachi scowled. "You don't think you're stressing about this too much, do you?" his friend asked, still chuckling while he set the necklace back down on the shelf he had taken it from._

_"I have to leave in an hour-" Itachi glanced to a clock in the store that caused the corners of his lips to turn down further. "In less than an hour and there's no way I'll be back by tomorrow with this mission to go to the birthday like Hiashi requested. He mentioned that he was going to tell her about the arrangement tomorrow and he wanted me there to... make things go smoother, I guess."_

_Shisui had finally stopped laughing completely and just smiled. "I already told you I would deliver your present to her. All you need to do is pick it out."_

_Itachi couldn't resist the scowl that was developing on his face. "But I won't be there, and I'm positive he's not going to tell her anything about it if I'm not there. It's been three years and he hasn't told her."_

_Shisui was silent for a moment before speaking, "Even with the agreement our clans aren't getting along. Of course, practically our entire clan knows so they are making the effort to not strike off as many matches with the Hyuuga, but only Hiashi, his brother, and that elder are the ones that know about it in that clan. They're probably more suspicious of us because of that. Not that you can really blame them for feeling that way."_

_He glanced to his cousin before looking back to the necklaces. "Is there any reason besides that for them to be suspicious?"_

_"I can't confirm anything yet, and I certainly wouldn't be comfortable talking about it here, but... It looks bad. On both sides. You know the plan concerning the village, and it would seem she's part of it."_

_Itachi felt his muscles tense for a second before he was able to loosen them up in the next moment. "Yeah. I had a feeling about that." His mother was way too happy with the arrangement made with him and Hinata. She certainly dropped enough hints for him to spend some actual time with the younger girl even though his schedule didn't allow for it. Whether it was because of missions assigned to him by the village or the clan he was booked nearly every second of the week. Especially with his own investigation. All of which wasn't even including his younger brother and the time he spent - or rather tried to - helping him with his skills as a ninja._

_With a sigh he picked up a silver chain, turning it over in his hands. The metal itself was better than the steel, perhaps a little less practical and something a thief would actually be interesting in stealing... He really shouldn't be worried about her losing it. Especially to a thief when it would be within the walls of a clan that possessed the byakugan. His gaze moved to the hook, the little slots for it that could add length to the necklace or shorten it depending on one's comfort. At the end of them was a small thin leaf made of amethyst._

_He blinked, pulling the necklace up further before dropping it from his hand so it dangled from a single finger. Itachi turned his hand over to see the small decorative gem at the back once more. It was leaving the front open for the future and clearly designed as a traditional necklace for the occasion he was looking for._

_With a glance down he could see others like it in varying metal colors and gems that were shaped into a variety of symbols: clouds, a single flame, the leaf, waves rising up from the air. Each one was distinct to a village or country in the nearby area._

_Itachi pulled the chain back up, glancing over it again. There were other gems with the leaf symbol as well, but unlike the amethyst it didn't make him think of her. This was the one he had been looking for._

Had she ever worn it? He was sure she knew what the gift had meant, but she obviously hadn't asked her father about it or Hiashi hadn't answered her when she did. Besides, she wasn't required to until the day she turned sixteen.

Which seemed to be approaching faster every day. He was really running short on time to make her comfortable with the upcoming marriage. Especially since he could only see her a few times a year. It was completely by chance that he even knew she was going to be in the area today, on her first mission out of the Fire Country and possibly her last for awhile since those exams were coming up. If she was taking part that is. That was still unclear to him and likely to her as well. Typically you either asked to be included in the exams or your squad leader decided for you and he doubted her case would be the former.

His gaze scanned over the streets again, hoping to see that lavender hued hair of hers. He couldn't direct her over himself though without sending a red flag to Kurenai. Quite literally if she noticed the genjutsu and then the sharingan beneath it.

He had told the hostess though that he was waiting for her or rather he gave a short description of her. Young, pale skin, short black-violet hair, white eyes. Of course since she didn't know about this arrangement - and had never been in this area before - she would look lost as well. Another reason to have the hostess keep an eye out for her as she led customers to their seats.

At a glimmer of black-purple he tilted his head before his eyes fell on her and the squad shortly afterwards. Kurenai was leading them down the street and - judging by the movement of her lips - telling the squad to have a look around before they left for Konoha.

Kiba was off heading to a pet shop, probably for treats for the dog, Akamaru that was on his heels. Shino had just muttered something before following after him, leaving Hinata to wander off to the other side of the street. The same side where the cafe was.

He glanced to the hostess to check if she had spotted the guest yet to lock eyes with the woman for a moment and he opted to incline his head towards the street as a way to confirm that she was the one. A couple seconds later when Hinata was just outside of the cafe the woman had reached forward to clasp her hand around the young girl's arm, saying something with a smile before leading the wide-eyed Hyuuga inside the cafe and winding through the tables to his own. "Your table, Miss," the hostess said while pulling the seat opposite him away from the table before letting go of her arm to head to a waitress to give his earlier order and then going back to her job. At least everything was going to plan so far.

"Umm e-excuse me?" His gaze dropped to Hinata who had reluctantly gotten into the seat while the employer was here but now looked ready to jump out. "I... I think there w-was a mis-mistake."

"Unless we're in an alternate universe and you're a decoy it's not a mistake," he replied calmly, watching as she began to fidget in the chair. She seemed unsure if she should get up and make a run for it or not. Maybe he shouldn't be playing games with her at the moment. "Hinata," he began to have her head shoot up from looking at the table cloth and to his eyes. That was the opposite reaction he had been looking for. "Please, calm down. I just want to talk with you."

She was pinching her bottom lip between her teeth now as she looked at him. "Do I... do I know you?" He paused, not particularly wanting to mention the blood pool when they last met even if it would be pretty straight forward. After another second of silence he gave a small smile to see her eyes widen in the next instant. "Itachi?" the moment his name had left her mouth she covered it with a hand, eyes flickering around the cafe before settling back on him.

He reached forward to grip her fingers lightly and move them away from her open mouth. "It's okay," he murmured softly, hoping she wasn't about to lunge for the door.

"Is it?" Hinata muttered, eyes still wandering around the cafe. "You... you're a... won't someone notice?"

He blinked. How did she keep doing that? Catching him off guard? "Don't worry about that. It's taken care of." His outward appearance was anyway, with another genjutsu. She must be concerned that someone would see through it, but he had taken all the precautions he could think of so that didn't happen.

"Oh, r-right. Can I... can I a-ask you so-something?" He finally felt himself relax when she asked the question. At the very least it meant she intended to stay seated. Itachi gave a nod of his head. "Why-" she cut herself off quickly when a waitress stopped by their table to set down a tray of sweets along with a drink for each of them.

"Thank you," Itachi told the villager.

"If you need anything else just ask," the waitress replied before walking away from the table.

When it remained silent even after the woman had left he reached forward to grab a stick from the plate, biting into one of the dango pierced on it a moment later. "What was your question?"

"Umm." Hinata looked about to reach toward the tray when her gaze dropped down to the hand she had just attempted to move. The same one his fingers were still wrapped around. He could see a pink tinge to her cheeks begin to develop and forced his fingers to stop their unconscious movement over her own, slipping his hand from hers. It took a second before Hinata moved again, grabbing a daifuku from the tray and rolling it around in her hands as her cheeks slowly began to pale. "Why did you s-save me from the Cl-cloud Ninja that n-night?"

Itachi bit into the other half of the dango, taking the few seconds it took to chew to sort out his thoughts. "I was in the area when I saw the other ninja wandering the village at night and then I saw the bundle he was carrying. I recognized him, as the Cloud Ninja that had just come to sign a peace agreement earlier that day and you in his arms. The main reason there was a war between ou-your village and the Cloud was because they wanted the byakugan. I only did my duty as a Leaf Ninja at the time to stop the kidnapping."

Hinata was frowning at the end of his explanation, staring down at the pink daifuku in her hands. "You were j-just doing your d-duty? Then ho-how come f-father didn't say th-that? He s-said he rescued me." Itachi didn't say anything. There was nothing to say. He had no idea why Hiashi would lie about something so simple, something he could have swept under the rug easily when she asked him. Unless... she was remembering the incident from her dreams. It must have been recent. Hiashi must not want her to feel any sort of gratitude towards someone like him. "Why did you kill your clan?"

He had just been taking a sip of his cold sweet tea when she asked the question and coughed a moment after. With a slight wince he took another drink to soothe his throat before giving the only answer he could give, "It's complicated."

"Like you saving me was complicated?" her voice was lower than normal and he glanced across the table at her as she bit into her sweet, chewing slowly, clearly not understanding what made it so complicated. He wished he had an answer that would satisfy her, but nothing came to mind. Other than Hiashi making that bit complicated. That man definitely didn't want him anywhere near his daughter even though he should know by now that he had no choice in the matter. Her father had given that away a long time ago.

"Ah," the small sound made him look back to her. To see her hands waving rather dramatically in front of her face, the tip of her tongue sticking out of her mouth. "Hot," she panted and he barely held the chuckle back as he remembered getting her a hot tea. Apparently it hadn't been his best choice for her.

"Here," he said, handing her his own sweet tea which she took quickly from his outstretched hands and began to drink down greedily. Itachi waited until she set it down to ask, "Better?"

"Mhm, th-thank you." As soon as the words were out of her mouth he could see her cheeks getting red again. First a lovely soft pink, but getting darker every second. His lips twitched up and she was scowling at him a moment later. "It's not funny." He released a soft chuckle at that. It was always funny when someone said that. "Or cute," she added a moment later.

He nearly burst out laughing. Had that comment really bothered her that much when he first said it just a month ago? Even with her lips forming a pout as he laughed it still rung true. She was cute-no  _adorable_  with her cheeks nearly bright red, little nose twitching as if she were about to-

Her eyes widened and her head swung around. "Sh-shino?"

His gaze raised to her squad-mate as he fought to suppress his laughter. "Kurenai said it was time to go," Shino said, but his gaze was on him rather than her.

Hmm. He adjusted his flow of chakra while leaning forward to look towards Hinata once more. "Thank you for keeping me company."

Somehow her cheeks got even redder and a soft laugh escaped his lips. "You-you're welcome," she murmured getting up from her seat and began to turn to stop short. Hinata turned back to him, lips pinched together. "When will I... see you again?"

"At the Exams."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. Longest chapter here yet. Don't forget to leave a review ^.^


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ready? Set. Go!

"What's so important that we can't jump into training right away?" Kiba questioned, sitting directly on his haunches just like Akamaru right next to him. "I want to continue working on my new technique."

Hinata couldn't agree more. She would rather be training than sitting here in the grass, leaning against a tree, waiting for Kurenai to tell them what was up. As far as she could recall they hadn't taken up any missions for today, so she was unsure what else Kurenai could possibly have to talk to them about. Today was a designated training day after-all.

To her right Shino remained silent, his jacket pulled up to cover his mouth, the edge lying just below his nose.

Kurenai directed a frown at Kiba. "At the moment you have more important things than training. You have to make an important decision by tomorrow because," Kurenai paused briefly to grab something from her pockets. "I've nominated the three of you for the upcoming Chunin Exams."

Hinata blinked, sitting up straight rather than against the trunk of the tree.

The Chunin Exams? Itachi had mentioned them the last time she saw him; that he would be here during the exams. He had even asked if she would be participating, but she hadn't even thought of it until now.

Her fellow teammates and her hadn't even been genin for a full year and they were being nominated? She hadn't heard of that happening very often. It was a difficult exam from what she heard and the genin that entered periodically came out to have a long stay at the hospital before going back to their duties and training. Not to mention just how many entered the exam and how few were promoted to chunin. The chances of success were extremely low and there was plenty of other genin that were far more skilled than her.

What reason did she have for entering such a dangerous exam when she knew she wasn't ready for it? Her shoulders slumped as the excitement of being nominated left her as soon as it had come.

"What? Really?" Kiba evidently didn't have this problem. He had leaped to his feat seconds after hearing the news and was now rocking forward and back on his heels. If he had a tail it would likely be wagging at sixty kilometers an hour. "We get to participate in the Chunin Exams?" He practically yelled to the heavens. Akamaru barked in equal excitement, standing up on his back legs now much like a person.

"Yes." Kurenai said, opening her hands a moment later for three slips of paper to be visible. "These are your applications. To take part in the Chunin Exams you'll need to sign these papers and turn them in at room 301 by four tomorrow."

Kiba's eyes just seemed to widen as he jumped forward to take one of the applications, rooting through his pockets for a second and then looking back to their squad leader. "Sensei, do you have a pen on you?"

Kurenai let out a loud laugh at this behavior, grinning at Kiba. "There's no need to rush it. You should seriously think this over before signing that paper. Besides, I thought you wanted to practice that new technique of yours today?"

"No way! I got to sign this before I can even think of my new jutsu!" Kiba exclaimed, glancing around as if a pen would magically appear out of thin air so he could sign the paper. He let out a loud, "I'll be right back!" A second later before running off back to the village to retrieve a writing utensil.

"Well then: Shino, Hinata, you got the rest of today to decide if you're entering the exams or not." Kurenai extended her hand that held the remaining applications.

Shino was the first to get up and retrieve one, moving into the clearing to probably look over just what it exactly entailed.

Hinata got up slowly from the ground, approaching after a few seconds to take the last application. Even though it was just a sheet of paper she felt intimidated by it. "Hinata?" She glanced up quickly to look at Kurenai. "No matter if you decide to enter or not, you're doing great."

A flush crawled up her cheeks at the praise. "T-thanks," she muttered.

Kurenai's smile faltered for a second, probably because her voice had come out so soft just then. Her father and most everyone she met seemed to hate it. "Just think about it. There's no need to make a commitment right now," with those words Kurenai turned and left the clearing, heading back to the village.

Hinata just gave a small nod of her head as she glanced down at the application.

_By signing this you are agreeing that we are not liable for any broken bones, disfigurements, loss of limbs, or fatal injuries that may or may not lead to death._

She gulped down a breath of air, fast and hard. Death? Had Kiba already signed this without looking at the words?

Who was she kidding? Of course he had. Even so he would have signed regardless if he had read the application or not because he wanted to advance quickly and Kurenai  _had_  nominated them for the exams. So she had to believe they were capable of advancing to chunin status this early on.

Hinata bit at her lip. Was she really that capable though? She knew she had made progress through out their training, but the lack of missions she had completed still kept coming back to her. Shino and Kiba were the capable ones, not her.

She glanced over to Shino who currently sat in the grass, a butterfly perched on either shoulder. There were probably more bugs crawling in the grass around him as well. She had to wonder if they were encouraging him to sign the application and take it to that room tomorrow. He certainly did have a good support group whenever he needed it. Her father hadn't even spoken to her for months.

After a second of clutching the application to her chest she walked over to sit in the grass a foot away from him. "S-say, Shino? Are you go-going to participate in the e-exams?"

"Yeah," he replied after a second. His gaze raised from the application to meet her own then. "How did you know that man?"

She blinked. Man? What man? There was no one else around and she couldn't recall anyone that had stood out on her way here this morning. "Uh... who are you specifically ask-asking about?

"The man from the cafe. How did you know him?"

The... cafe?  _Oh._  "I-I didn't kn-know him," Hinata said quickly, letting the application fall into her lap as she raised her hands to try and wave off any suspicions he might have. "I just w-went into that c-cafe and s-sat with him because the t-table was a-availab-ble."

"It was the only table available when you entered?"

"Y-yes," she answered; wondering just what else she could say so he would drop the subject.

"But you asked when you could see him again, so you must have known him somehow." Shino paused for a second, eyebrows furrowing. "He mentioned seeing you at the Exams which is in a few days and he was using a genjutsu so he wouldn't be recognized. That's correct, isn't it?"

She could feel her fingers twitch, curling around the application in her lap. He had assured her no one would know that, that... Wait. Shino had asked her how she knew him. He wasn't accusing her of collaborating with an enemy or what-not. So he had noticed the genjutsu but not the man beneath? Her shoulders dropped before she could stop them; a soft sigh slipping from her lips. "Don't tell anyone.  _Please_ , Shino."

The seconds ticked by and she didn't dare look at him in case of what she might see. Contempt? The same sort of anger she always saw in her father's eyes? A misplace of trust? She really didn't want to know what was running through his head after that little interrogation; she just wanted to make sure he wouldn't mention it to anyone else. They wouldn't understand. Her father likely wouldn't even care.

"There's nothing to tell."

"Uh," Hinata blinked, looking up at Shino from beneath her eyelashes, a sniff escaping her. She threw herself forward a moment after, wrapping her arms around him. "Thank you."

Shino had stiffened for a moment at the close contact, but then she felt a hand on her back, patting gently. "I'm your friend, Hinata. I wouldn't do anything to hurt you, no matter how small."

Those words had resonated in her mind for the rest of the day as she trained relentlessly in that clearing, not really sure what she was doing it for. Herself? The Exams? She couldn't tell. Hinata had simply trained alongside Shino until Kiba came bounding back and jumping in alongside them with his new jutsu.

When all the training was done she had said her quick good-byes, walking back to the Hinata compound with the application once again clung to her chest. It had been sent to the back of her mind until now. She needed to make her decision tonight though.

No one had mentioned the paper she held when she entered the compound, excusing herself from dinner before it had even begun. It's not like she was welcomed there anyway. They probably wouldn't have even noticed she was missing if she hadn't mentioned her intent. Somehow she was sure they never missed her presence.

Hinata sat on her mattress, trying to fight back the tears that were threatening to fall once she was back in this place.  _Hell._  It had to be. How else could one describe this feeling? Like the walls themselves resonated hate around her, shoving her out every morning and making her as slow as a snail when she tried to come back.

No one here cared about her. Whether she chose to participate in the exams or not they wouldn't take an interest. It was only Hanabi they were interested in. She almost wished she had a third sister or brother, younger than Hanabi that could take the heiress title from her so she would know what she was feeling right now.  _Almost._ She couldn't actually wish such pain on anyone, much less her younger sister. It was her father and grandpa that ignored her the most afterall, glaring at her constantly. As if to say she wasn't good enough for anything. As if-

Hinata stifled a sob, bringing her hands up quickly to cover her mouth. She didn't want them to hear her, to know that she was crying because of  _them_. They were probably happy about it. The only thing about her that brought a single fuzzy feeling to them was her pain. It had to be.

She wiped at the corners of her eyes to stop the tears. Itachi cared though. She wasn't sure why, but he must with the way he kept showing up. He had saved her from the ninja once because... well, he  _said_  it was because it had been his duty at the time when he was a member of the village. Though she doubted it. Why else would he appear again in her life years later? Why did he appear to have an interest in her? Telling her all those things...

_"You're cute, Hinata."_

_"How is your father? Is he treating you well?"_

_"Be safe, okay?"_

He had to care. The only one that did that wasn't in her squad. He said he would be there for the Exams, for her.

Hinata picked up a pen from her nightstand and signed the application, tucking it under the covers with her as she slept.

When she awoke the next morning she dressed swiftly, marching down the hallway and into the open courtyard where she could see her father already training with Hanabi. Her grandpa wasn't too far away, sitting on a bench, but she could care less about him or what he thought of her. There was only one person she wanted to speak to before she met with her squad.

Hinata stepped off the wood boards and onto the dark gravel. She could practically feel their eyes turn to her - all of them - as she walked forward, only stopping when she stood in front of her father and Hanabi. She forced herself to raise her chin and look past her younger sister until her eyes met with her father's.

"I'm entering the Chunin Exams."

With her message conveyed she stepped past them and to the gates. Of course he didn't say anything back. Why would he? Her father was busy with Hanabi; as always.

She made her way along the roads and to the school, only stopping when she saw Shino and Kiba already standing near the front doors, waiting for her.

A smile tugged at the corners of her lips. They believed in her. Then that's all she needed; them, Kurenai, and Itachi. She didn't need her family who could of cared less that she was entering into such a dangerous competition. Her father hadn't tried to stop her. No 'wait' was spoken, just silence.

With that in mind she hurried forward towards the two of them. "S-sorry I'm late."

"Late?" Kiba laughed. "We got till four. Come on."

With a smile she followed them inside. Hinata paused halfway down the hall as a sharp sting in her abdomen reminded her that she still hadn't eaten anything yet and she popped a few coins into a machine, digging out the two snack foods shortly after. Kiba got something from another machine after commenting that it would still be roughly an hour before the exams started and he didn't want to get hungry when they began.

The rest of the walk was relatively silent besides her own chewing of a bar. A commotion could be heard down the hall though after they ascended the first pair of stairs.

"Hey! You have to let us in!"

Laughter followed. "Do we? If you can't pass us maybe you shouldn't be taking the exams, did you ever think of that? You damn shrimps." Her gaze settled on two male ninjas standing in front of a room marked as 301.

"I'm not a shrimp!" The younger ninja shouted back, rushing at them only to hit the far wall a second later.

"No?" One of the ninja cracked his knuckles. "You wouldn't get very far in the exams, shrimp. Ninja have died trying to complete it and those that haven't? Most quit their pathetic attempt to be a shinobi after failing once."

"That's inaccurate," Shino spoke from her left, pushing up the bridge of his glasses. "They usually quit after their third loss. Out of curiosity, how many times have you failed?"

The other male ninja grinned at Shino. "This will be our forth."

"Persistent," Shino muttered, glancing to the room number above.

"Then that makes you more pathetic than a shrimp!" The young ninja snapped, already getting back to his feet. "Now let us in!"

There was movement to her right and then she could see Kiba in front of her and Shino, standing between the once again charging ninja and the two guarding the door. He sent the one stumbling back and tripping their own feet before turning to the two males and shoving them up against the door. "Stop wasting everyone's time and stay out of the way," Kiba snarled at them. "If you're going to guard a door make sure it's the right one so then next time I can kick your ass." Akamaru echoed the statement by growling at the two from atop Kiba's head.

They only raised their hands though, chuckling. "See through it did you?"

Kiba only let out a huff before letting them go and continuing down the hall. She could already see Shino begin walking as well, but after seeing those two taunt some of the other ninja she had to step toward them. "Umm, y-your genjutsu is fai-fairly noticeable e-even without the byakugan-n." She turned quickly from them and ran the few steps it took to be back with her squad. Kiba threw a grin over his shoulder at her before turning back to face the stairs that would take them to the third floor and - consequently - the actual exam room.

Which happened to be quite packed.

Hinata stared for a moment at the room after entering. There had to be at least a hundred ninja packed in here. Perhaps more. She would be competing against all of these ninja. How on earth-

A hand gripped her arm, leading her away from the entrance and to the corner of the room to her right. The moment it let go she fell back onto the wall and slipped down the cold stone. How could she have entered this exam? Would her father even blink if she happened to die during the exams?

"Hinata?" She glanced up to see Kiba looking down at her, Shino standing off to his side. "Is something wrong?" She looked to the wall quickly, which only seemed to strengthen his resolve. "Is it your father?"

She blinked, staring at the cracks in the stone, spreading across the wall like a spiderweb. Did he plan for her to get caught in one? Like the exam? So she wouldn't continue being a ninja, so... She shook her head quickly. No. It could never come to that, could it? He couldn't hate her that much. "I told him I was entering the Chunin Exams."

"What did he say?"

Her gaze lowered to the floor. "Nothing," she muttered.

She could hear Kiba let out a snort from above but said nothing of it. There wasn't anything to say. She just wanted the exams to start right now. Before she convinced herself not to go forward with it even after signing the application. The same one she had turned in moments ago to a chunin standing at the door. If she ran now her friends wouldn't be able to compete. She needed to stay so she wouldn't disappoint them like her father. So-

_"It's okay."_

Itachi. Why wasn't here now? Couldn't he disguise himself again and come to her? He said he would see her at the Exams, but maybe it was too early. Only a small part of the exams were open to the public. Perhaps he would be here then. Though she wished he was here now. Even if he ended up laughing once more when her cheeks became a dark red. To feel his lips on her brow once more, washing away all memories of her clan that she wished to forget.

A phantom set of lips brushed across her forehead then, fingers parting the hair around the area...

A gasp escaped her as her eyes snapped open. Had she... she had fallen asleep! There was a bark of laughter near her and she raised her head to see Kiba grinning at her. "Didn't get enough sleep last night, Hinata?"

Her face flushed near instantly. She would have spoken if not for the sudden loud explosion at the front of the room.

She turned quickly, pushing herself up along the wall to stand up and see a bunch of new occupants in the room dressed in standard chunin gear. Two of which had been guarding that door on the lower floor... Had that genjutsu been a test? "Quiet down!" A man, taller than the rest and dressed in darker attire shouted. "Thanks for waiting. I am Morino Ibiki, the examiner for the Chunin Selection Exam's first test. If you're not already aware there will be no fighting without the permission of the examiner." Ibiki glanced around the room, his eyes landing on a few ninja that she could only guess looked troublesome in this aspect. "Even if permission is granted, killing your opponent will not be tolerated. Those pigs that disobey me will be failed immediately. Do I make myself clear?"

The following total silence of the room was answer enough.

"We will now start the first test in the Chunin Exam. Instead of your current seating arrangements you will pick one of these tabs and sit in the seat assigned to you. We will then hand out the exams."

Somewhere she could hear Naruto's familiar shout, "What? A paper test?"

"Man," Kiba muttered to her right. "He hasn't shut up since he got here."

A small laugh escaped her before she waiting to receive one of these tabs, taking a seat toward the front and looking down at a test paper with the back facing up. It was just a paper test; how hard could it be? This was certainly better than jumping into a fight anyway. She would rather the next few tests be like this as well, but she knew that wouldn't be happening. They would need to show their ninja skills as well, not just their intellect.

"Do not turn your tests over. Listen closely to what I'm about to say." She raised her gaze from the paper to look at Ibiki. "There are many important rules to this first test. I'll write it on the board while I explain, but questions will not be allowed, so listen carefully." Ibiki began writing as he spoke, "The first rule, you guys will all start off with ten points. The test is made up of ten questions and each one is worth a point but... This test uses a subtraction system. Basically if you answer all the questions correctly, you keep your ten points. But say if you miss three questions; you will lose three points and will have seven.

"The second rule: this is a team test. Whether pass or not will be determined by the combined score of your teammates. So, each team will compete to see how many points they can hold on to from the initial team total of thirty-"

"Wait a second!" Hinata glanced over her shoulder to see Sakura sitting up with a hand in the air. "I don't understand this initial points system either, but why is it a team test?"

"Shut up," Ibiki snapped and her gaze moved back to him. "You don't have the right to question me. There is a reason for this, be quiet and listen. Okay, and now the most important rule. The third rule is that during the exam anyone caught by the testing officers doing sneaky activities, namely cheating will have two points subtracted for every offense." He grinned. "So there will be some who will lose all their points during the exam and be asked to leave."

"We'll have our eyes on you guys," she recognized the voice as one of those men from the second floor. He was now one of these examiners keeping an eye on everyone? Were all the examiners so mean?

"Realize that the pathetic ones that get caught cheating will be destroying themselves. As shinobis trying to achieve the level of chunin, be proud ninjas. And the final rule, those that lose all their initial points during the test and those that don't answer any questions correctly... Will be failed along with their two teammates."

Hinata blinked until the reason dawned on her. The chunin at the door had said they wouldn't be able proceed to the exams if even one member of their squad was absent. Plus he had mentioned this being a team test and it likely wasn't the only one if they were going to continue to weed out full teams for one member's mistake. The next test at the very least had to include the full squad as well.

"The exam will last for one hour. Begin!" At Ibiki's command she turned over the paper in front of her, taking the pencil in hand a moment later.

The first question... It was a cryptogram.

She smiled at seeing this. These really weren't that hard; all she need to do was recognize the pattern presented by the words on the paper and replace them with their actual words to find the message hidden within. Simple.

Her pencil scribbled quickly on the paper, taking the hint from the question to find the code she needed to use for this variation of the substitution cipher.

Okay, next question then. 'Line B, seen in the picture, is the greatest possible distance a shinobi can throw his shuriken from a tree of seven meters. For enemies who appear within the circumference of the shuriken's range, explain the attack options using this distance. Show your work.'

She already knew she didn't have the field experience for the question, but was it really necessary anyway? It was a mathematical question really when one got down to it. Technique on the field would help, but she just needed to focus on one option at a time and go through each of them to make sure she got them all.

Hinata continued looking over the questions, answering them as best she could even as she heard an occasional kunai sink into one of the desks.

"You messed up five times. You fail." It was that same man again. He certainly seemed to get a kick out of doing his job. "The two on his team, get out of here. Right now. Hurry up."

She shook her head quickly to get the words just spoken out of her mind and focused back on question six. More kunai were carving the wood as the hour dragged on, more pairs of footsteps following the sound moments later; followed by curses from the ninja that were being told to leave.

"Number twenty three, you fail."

"Number forty one, leave now."

"Fifty seven, get out."

It went on and on as her pencil scratched along the paper. Surely the hour was up by now, she wondered; gaze falling onto the last question. Number ten. She set her pencil down, waiting for it to come. Hinata was sure she could get this one right as well.

"Okay. We will now start the tenth question." She gripped her pencil once again, wondering what it could possibly be. "Now, before we get to it I would like to go over the added rules for this question." Her grip tightened on the pencil. Added rules? "Heh. Nice timing." She glanced over her shoulder at one of the ninja that had just come back through the door. "Was your doll playing beneficial?" Doll? Was that... She activated her byakugan for a second. Yes, the examiner that came in with the genin was a doll.

She turned quickly to face the front again as Ibiki began speaking once more, "I'll now explain. These are the rules of desperation; first for this tenth question you must decide whether you will take it or not."

"Choose?" A shout came from one of the middle right rows. "What happens if we choose not to?" From the headband around the girl's neck she was a part of the Sand Village.

"If you choose not to, your points will be reduced to zero. You fail! Along with your two teammates."

A barrage of exclamations came from all around the room,

"What does that mean?"

"Then of course we will decide to take the question!"

"And now," Ibiki said without skipping a beat, as if no one had ever spoken out against the rules. "The other rule. If you choose to take it and answer incorrectly; that person will lose the right to take the chunin selection exam again."

"What kind of stupid rule is that?" She could hear Kiba explode from somewhere within the room. "There are guys here who have taken the exam before!"

She glanced to the examiner. He was right, the exam had been taken before by numerous ninja here. How could a rule like that exist if they were here? It made no sense.

"You guys were unlucky. This year it's my rules." She blinked. Was this guy a sadist? "But I am giving you a way out. Those that aren't confident can choose not to take it and try again next year." Ibiki paused for a moment, grinning out at the ninja that remained. He had to be a sadist. "Now let's begin. The tenth question. Those that do not wish to take it, raise your hand. Once your number is confirmed, leave."

Hinata bit on her lip, but otherwise didn't move. She could do this. How much more difficult could the question be than the first nine anyway? She had answered those. This one should be no problem.

"I won't take it!" She could hear a shout, but didn't turn to look at the ninja. Instead she kept her gaze on Ibiki, certain neither of her teammates would raise their hands. No, she knew they wouldn't. Kiba was to stubborn even if he thought he might get it wrong he would still proceed forward. Shino on the other hand, she couldn't imagine him giving in to this examiner that seemed to want all of them to fail.

More announcements like it followed quickly as more ninja filed out of the room with their heads down; either from raising their hand and asking to leave themselves or from their teammates doing so.

"DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ME! I WILL NOT RUN!" Naruto's shout filled the room, nearly causing her ears to pop. "I'll take it! Even if I'm a genin forever! I'll will myself to becoming Hokage anyway, so I don't care! I am not afraid!"

"Christ," even with all the yelling she could clearly hear Kiba's mutter from just a few rows behind her. She giggled softly. It would seam none of the rookie ninjas were leaving the exam on the first test.

"I'll ask you again. Your life is riding on this decision. This is your last chance to quit." Ibiki persisted once more.

"I follow my unbending words. That's my ninja way." Naruto seemed to be just as stubborn as her teammate.

"Good decisions." Ibiki turned his gaze to all of the remaining ninja then. "Now to everyone still remaining... I congratulate you on passing the first test!"

Hinata froze, the pencil slipping from her fingers to clatter on the desk below. Pass? She passed?

"Wait. What do you mean?" Sakura was speaking up again. "We already pass? What about the tenth question?"

"There never was such a thing." Ibiki was now grinning, a friendly grin to... How unsettling could one person be? "Or you could say that those two choices were the tenth question."

"Hey!" It was that ninja from the Sand Village again. "Then what were the first nine questions for? They were pointless then!"

"They were not pointless. They had already served their intended purpose." Intended purpose? Was the goal not to just simply answer the questions on the sheet of paper? "To test your individual information gathering ability; that purpose."

"Information gathering?"

"First, as the rules explained success on this test is based on the whole team doing well. This put pressure on each member not to mess things up for their teammates. But the questions on this test were not the types a mere genin could answer. Because of that, I'm sure most you here came to the same conclusion. That to score points; 'I'll have to cheat.' Basically the premise of this test is to cheat. As cheating targets, we had two or so chunins who knew all the answers mixed into the crowd, to help you guys out."

"Man, it sure was tough finding that guy."

"Yeah, I know." The two ninja that she suspected were on the same team laughed at their observations.

"But those that cheat poorly... Fail, of course." Ibiki pulled his headband from his head then and she stared at what was underneath: burns, screw holes, scars... This man had been caught by enemies and tortured before. "Because at times, information is more important than life. And on missions and the battlefield, people risk their lives to get their hands on it." Ibiki pulled his head band back on, back to that disturbingly friendly grin. "If the enemy or third party notices you there is no guarantee the info will be accurate. I want you to remember this. Important information in your hands can be a powerful weapon for your comrades and for the village. So we had you gather information through cheating. This clearly separated those that did not have the right abilities."

"But... I don't understand the final question," the sand ninja said.

"Well, question ten is the true purpose of this test."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"Let me explain. The tenth question. The 'take it' or 'not take it' decision. Obviously these were painful choices. Those who choose the latter fail along with their teammates. Those who choose to take it... could loose the chance to take the test again. A true leap of faith. Now about these two choices, say you guys become chunins. Your mission is to steal a secret document. The amount of ninjas, their abilities, etc. is unknown to you. And of course there could be traps set all around you. Now do you accept, or not accept? Because you don't want to die... Because you don't want your comrades hurt... Can you avoid this dangerous mission?

"The answer is no! No matter what the danger there are missions you can't avoid. The ability to be courageous and survive any hardship... This is the ability needed to become a Chunin Captain. Those who can't put their destinies on the line, who cling to the uncertain future of 'there's always next year' and then walk away from their chance... Those pieces of trash who can only make such cowardly choices don't have the right to become Chunin! That's how I feel!

"Those who chose to take it answered the tough tenth question correctly. You will be able to survive any troubles you face in the future. You made it through the entrance. The first test of the Chunin Selection Exam is now finished. I wish you guys luck."

"Hell yeah! Wish us luck!" Naruto yelled.

Her lips were tugging up into a grin when the window was shattered to her left. A woman now stood in the room, not dressed like a genin or chunin. Was she another jounin?

"You guys! This is no time to be celebrating! I am the examiner for the second test! Mitarashi Anko! Now let's go! Follow me!" Were all the examiners this intense?

"Bad timing," Ibiki spoke from behind the large poster Anko had thrown up when she entered the room.

"Seventy eight? Ibiki! You left twenty six teams? The test was too easy this time!"

Ibiki had just stepped out from behind the poster. "This time there are a lot of outstanding ones."

"Bah," Anko turned from him, looking out at the genin. "That's fine. I'll at least cut them in half with the second test." In half? So only thirteen teams would be left? If that by the way Anko was looking over the genin like a wolf looked at a juicy rabbit. "Ahhh, I'm getting excited. I'll explain everything once we've changed places. Follow me."

Anko escorted them out of room 301, through the village, to a large gate with multiple metal signs plastered across the metal web very clearly stating,

_Danger! Stay out!_

Anko turned to them before she could really even think over all the danger signs. "Welcome to the stage for the second test, practice area forty four. Also known as, The Forest of Death! Which you'll soon find out for yourselves; the reason it is called the, Forest of Death." She could could only describe Anko's grin as evil. "Before we start the second test there's something I have to pass out." She brought out a pile of papers from a pocket in her jacket. "You must sign these agreement forms. There will be death in this one and if I don't have you sign these it will all be my responsibility, hehe."

So unlike the original applications fatal injuries were guaranteed here? That could very possibly lead to death. Hinata glanced to Shino and Kiba, but neither looked particularly worried over this announcement.

"I'm going to explain the second test, then you can sign it afterwards. And then each team will check in at that booth behind me." Anko walked around at the front of the group handing out a few stacks of the papers at a time for the genin to disperse among themselves. "Simply put, for this test you will attempt the ultimate survival. First I'll explain the area in which it will take place." Hinata took one of the forms as Anko brought out a map from her jacket next. "Around practice area number forty four are forty four locked gates. Inside is a forest, river, and a tower at the center. The distance from the gates to the tower is about ten kilometers.

"During the survival in here, you will be asked to complete a certain task. Using your many weapons and jutsu, you will compete in a no rules scroll battle."

"Scroll?" a genin asked.

"Yes," Anko confirmed. "You will fight over these two scrolls," she said while pulling them out, once again from her pockets. "The Heaven and Earth scrolls. There are seventy eight people here, meaning twenty six teams. Half, thirteen, will get the Heaven other half will each get the Earth scroll. To pass this test your team must make it to the tower with  _both_ scrolls. But there's a time limit. This second test will last a hundred twenty hours. Exactly five days."

"Five days?" Ino shouted from within the crowd.

"What about dinner?" Choji asked.

This only received a sadistic looking grin from Anko. "You're on your own. The forest is full of food. Just watch out for man-eating beasts, poisonous insects," Well, that was one thing she wouldn't have to worry about herself. Not with Shino around. "Poisonous plants, and thirteen teams passing is not likely. As the days go on, the distance to the goal will became farther, and the time to rest will become shorter. And the area is crawling with enemies. You won't get much sleep. So not only will some fail by losing the scroll... but some will die from the harshness of the course.

"Now I'll talk about what will disqualify you. First," Anko held up a single finger at this word. "Those that don't make it to the tower, with both scrolls, within the time limit. Second," Another finger was put up. "Those who lose a teammate or those who have a teammate killed. As a rule, there is no quitting in the middle, you will be in the forest for five days. And one more rule, you must not look inside the scroll until you make it to the tower."

"What happens if you do?" Naruto asked.

"That will be a surprise for anyone who does. A chunin will be asked to handle classified information. This is to test your trustworthiness. That is it for the explanations. Exchange the three forms for your scroll. Then choose a gate to get ready for the start. A final word of advice; don't die."

"Yahoo! Survival is our specialty. Right, Hinata?"

"Y-yes," she murmured, not quite expecting the sudden exclamation from Kiba.

"Just try to keep a level head," Shino said, looking pointedly at Kiba.

"My head is level!" Kiba snapped, causing Hinata to giggle at her teammates antics.

She signed her own form with them before going to the booth to retrieve a scroll and obtain a gate number for their starting point. At first Kiba insisted on keeping the scroll but after a rather quick 'debate' Shino had grabbed the scroll and tucked it into his own coat, ending the issue.

Once all the teams had their scrolls Anko appeared in front of the genin. "Everyone, follow an instructor and go to your gates! We will start in thirty minutes!" So they made their way to their marked gate, taking up nearly all the time given to get there. "The second test of the Chunin Exam begins now!"

The moment the gates opened Hinata sprung forward with the rest of her team. Kiba came to a halt after only going a few minutes into the Forest of Death. "Hey, Shino aren't those..." he trailed off pointing in the direction that he saw the slug-like creatures.

"Yes," Shino confirmed for him.

Kiba grinned wickedly. "I got an idea."

They didn't have to wait for very long before Hinata could see a team drawing near with her byakugan. She deactivated the ability quickly. "They're coming from the east."

Kiba chuckled softly from his perch on a stone. "This is to easy." He got up though and headed over to Hinata. Shino joined them shortly after directing his friends to the appropriate location. "So basically everyone is headed to the tower, right?" Kiba asked, a bit louder than what an indoor voice would call for. Even so she went along with the act and gave a swift nod of her head. "Then setting traps near there would be best-" Kiba turned his head quickly, glancing around. "Hey, already," his voice lowered a tad; to something more dangerous. "Where are they?"

Hinata pushed her fingers together in her usual nervous habit, as if not being able to locate the ninja she sensed was troubling her. As if she _couldn't_ sense them.

"AHHHHH!"

The sudden scream coming from the east didn't surprise her enough to even make her jump. Hinata turned in the direction, watching as the group of genin fell from the trees and down below into the sticky net.

"Damn it." One was trying to stand up as her team moved across the forest floor towards them.

"Huh?" Another had just pulled up with their wrist and they all were suddenly hanging in the air, encased in the net when the trap feature was activated by the small movement. "Uwaa!"

Kiba grinned up at them. "Leaf Village Jumping Leaches will sense life forms and attack in a group. Five minutes of sucking and you'll be in the next world." He stepped forward to grab their discarded scroll. The same exact one they needed before heading to the tower. "One down!"

"One?" Shino questioned, brow raised.

"K-kiba," Hinata took a step toward her teammate, wondering if Anko's blood-lust had rubbed off on him somehow. "We have the scroll we need. Can't we j-just head to the t-tower now?"

"Huh?" Kiba glanced from her and then Shino a few times before settling on the other male teammate. "Why?"

"Hinata's right. There's no reason to engage any other of the teams now that we have that scroll. We've completed the mission and should continue to the tower."

"But the more scrolls we take the less teams that will be there, right? Don't you want to knock out some more of the competition?" Kiba questioned, glancing between the two of them once more. "That's not a bad idea tactically, is it?"

She found herself pressing her fingers together again. "Going out and finding trouble is different," Hinata muttered, glancing to Shino to see if he would back her up or not. This was a dangerous test and the stakes were only raised higher with the other genin having permission to kill as well.

"If we were to find a team on our way to the tower and scoped them out so we would know if we could win or not; that would be fine." Shino turned and began walking in the direction of the tower then.

"Yeah!" Kiba yelled, while Akamaru let out a howl from within his jacket. He took off running a second later and Hinata quickly followed, activating her byakugan. It was going to be instrumental in finding those teams they could take on since Kiba wanted to fight so badly, and besides, this way no one could surprise them either. Not completely that is. They would have time to prepare for an attack.

She could sense Shino running after them now, sticking to the back of the group while Kiba had taken the lead, leaving Hinata in the middle of the pack.

They continued like that for awhile, Hinata being careful not to mention any powerful ninja. She didn't want Kiba getting the idea of starting a fight with them just to prove he could knock them down. Her focus was drawn to a group of genin just north west of their current position.

Two teams of genin fighting each other over the scrolls; it was unfortunate for them though that she could already see that they both had the same scroll. Their fight was a waste of time, but... "Kiba." She jumped forward to the branch he was on, sitting still.

"Huh?" Kiba stopped in his tracks, turning toward her. "What is it, Hinata?"

"Over there." She gave a nod in the direction she had seen them. "Two teams, the same scroll."

Kiba flashed a smile before he was off in the direction, Hinata following quickly behind as she explained the situation to Shino who had moved up next to her in the squad line. They all stopped in the trees, looking down at the six genin in a clearing below. "Let's go," Kiba said, fishing out a food pill to give Akamaru before launching himself down below.

Hinata followed after the initial surprised screams had passed and Kiba had come to a stop after unleashing his fang over fang jutsu on the genin. She activated her byakugan before her feet even touched the ground, spinning on her toe when she landed to face a genin that was now racing at her and struck them across the waist with her leg. The genin didn't go down though, moving in to strike at her.

She could hear Kiba laughing at that choice of attack when she caught the fist raised at her, snapping her fingers down to stop the flow of chakra to the hand an instant later. The genin's eyes widened just as her other hand hit him in the gut, switching off more chakra points as she did.

With the genin still stunned from the loss of chakra control she moved her hands back before exploding forward, jabbing continuously at the chakra points along the arms, sides, and stomach; staying away from anything too vital. She ended the strikes by laying both palms on his chest, sending him flying backward and into a tree.

She was gasping for air as she turned to see Kiba and Shino had dealt with the other five ninja. Kiba was standing triumphantly in the middle of the battlefield with the scrolls from each team, laughing with a big grin on his face. "Two more down! Let's move!"

They took off once again, not masking their path as they continued to the tower. Hinata didn't bother to look for other teams of genin though, she just kept her byakugan activated so they wouldn't be jumped like those other two teams.

When they reached the tower Hinata took a quick look around before entering the building with her squad. No one else seemed to be around, but she could sense one other team in the building. But if they were here and inside they probably already had the scrolls as well. Which would mean they had finished this mission second. When she told Kiba this he had practically begun bouncing from wall to ceiling.

"Yeah! Now... are we suppose to just leave this room?"

Hinata glanced around: the walls were moderately thick, the ceiling going to a second story, a door on the further end of the stairways above. She deactivated her byakugan though to look at the framed words on the wall.

"It's a message asking us to open the two scrolls," Shino said; he must have noticed the words before her.

"Really?" Kiba looked back to glance at Shino, grinning once again. "Open them!"

Shino sighed before retrieving the scrolls, laying them out on the ground before rolling them open at the same time. Smoke began to disperse into the air when they opened, swirling around the two scrolls. She took a step back as a form appeared in the smoke before the last tendrils of gray disappeared, leaving a ninja standing besides the two open scrolls.

Her eyes widened after a second. He was the same ninja that had been guarding the door, the first to send a genin from the first test. The man glanced over the three before looking at a clock on the opposite wall and then he grinned, "Congratulations, you pass the second test!"

"Yes!" Akamaru barked enthusiastically after Kiba's yell.

Hinata glanced at Kiba for a moment before turning to the chunin ninja. "Y-you're one of the e-examiners, aren't you-u?"

"Yeah. You three did a good job looking through that earlier genjutsu. I am here to explain the writing on the wall as well, apart from congratulating the second team to pass the second exam."

"Hmm? What does the writing on the wall say?" Kiba had stopped his little celebration to look at the framed words.

"It's the motto of the Chunin written by Hokage-sama. 'If you lack heaven, seek wisdom, be prepared.' Heaven refers to the mind while earth refers to the body. Basically it means if you're lacking one of those train hard to obtain both a sharp mind and body. If you have both you'll succeed in even the most dangerous of missions. As for the missing word, it represents a chunin. 'These rules will guide a person's extremes.' Anyway, even though you didn't take all of the first day... This five day test of survival was made to test the exam taker's basic abilities needed to become a chunin. Chunins are at the rank of military captain, you have the responsibility of guiding a team. Which knowledge, stamina, and inner wisdom are all needed to perform your duties. Now, since you finished early there are rooms further up the tower that you can use while you wait for the five days to end. Just because you finished the second test does not allow for you to leave the grounds at this time." Promptly afterwards he burst into smoke, leaving the room.

They spent the new few days in a room upstairs, training and getting ready for the next part of the exams. It went by quite slowly and a few times Kiba mentioned wishing they had stayed out in the field longer, but Shino would combat him with the fact they could have lost their own scrolls in that time-frame. That and he had made it impossible for two other teams to even complete the test as the two extra scrolls they obtained weren't put back out into the field, but were in the tower.

Hinata could only imagine that Anko had been thrilled at that news for it just being the first day. She only hoped the next test examiner wasn't like the last two. Though admittedly Anko was creepier than Ibiki.

She was quite happy with pretty much staying in the room they all shared for those days, though. It was much better than going home. A place she wasn't even sure deserved that name. She almost wished there was a way she wouldn't have to go back after the exam but that would never happen.

Of course she would go back. Of course none of her blood-relatives would say a word to her about the Chunin Exams whether she passed or failed. It would be amazing if she passed though. Then her father would  _have_  to acknowledge her existence. Like he used to.

Hinata was on the verge of sighing when she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Shino. "The time is up for the second test. They want everyone on the bottom floor of the tower."

She gave a small nod of her head as she got up. "Okay."

The trip down was uneventful and silent. Kiba had gotten the message a bit earlier than them it would seem since he had been in the designated training room and had run down there instantly.

When Shino and her got there though Kiba quickly waved them over, looking more excited than ever about these exams. "Only fifteen people passed. That's just five teams. Plus all the rookies are here."

"It looks like everyone is assembled here now, sir." She heard Anko speaking before she saw her and the Hokage, along with the rest of the examiners.

"First off, for the second test, congratulations on passing!"

"Hokage-sama will now explain the third test. Listen carefully," Anko told the genin.

"For the coming third test... but before I explain that. There is something I would like you to know. It concerns the true reason for this exam." The Hokage paused for a moment, looking over all of them. "Why did we have all the allianced countries taking the exam together? 'To promote friendship among the countries. To raise the level of shinobi.' I don't want you to be confused about the true meaning. The exam is a replacement for war among the allied countries."

"What does that mean?" a girl, who she knew as Tenten asked.

"If you go back in time, the current allies were enemies who fought each other over who would rule. In order to prevent wasteful fighting, the stage that these countries chose for battle... That is the origins of this chunin selection exam."

"Isn't this thing for deciding who's a chunin?" Naruto asked, rather loudly.

"It is a fact that this exam decides which shinobis have what it takes to become a chunin. But on the other hand, this exam has another side to it. Where each country's shinobis risks their own life to protect their land's prestige."

"Prestige?" Sakura muttered.

"Watching this third exam will be leaders and influential individuals from many countries who make up the clients of the shinobi. And the leaders of the countries will also be there to watch each of your battles. If the strength of a country is clear, that country will receive more clients. And conversely, if seen as weak, they will lose clients. This will signal to potential enemy countries that 'our village has this much power.' So it will send a political message to the outsiders."

"Yeah, but why?" She glanced back to Kiba when he shouted up at the Hokage. "Why did we have to risk our lives in battle?"

For being just yelled at the Hokage was rather calm. "The strength of the country is the strength of the village. The strength of the village is the strength of the shinobi. And a true shinobi's strength is born only through life-risking battle. This exam is a place to see each country's strength and to show off your own strength. It only has meaning because lives are at risk. And that's why those that have come before you have fought in the Chunin Exam for this dream that is meaningful."

"But then why do you say stuff about it being for 'friendship?'" Tenten asked, taking a step forward.

"I said it in the beginning, I don't want you to confuse the purpose of this. By losing life and establishing balance. This is the shape of friendship in the world of shinobi. Before we begin the third test I will tell you one more thing. This is not just a test. This is a life-risking battle. With your dreams and your country's prestige on the line."

"I get it," she could hear Naruto say.

"I don't care what it is. Just hurry up and tell us what the life-risking battle entails." It was another of those Sand shinobi.

"Yes. I'd like to now explain the third test, but... actually-"

"I apologize, Hokage-sama." A shinobi had just appeared in front of him, bowing with his head down. "From here on, as the referee. Will you please allow me, Gekkou Hayate."

"By all means," the Hokage gave him permission to go ahead.

The man stood up then and turned to face them, letting out a cough as he did. "Hello everyone, I'm Hayate. Umm," He coughed again, masking it with a hand even though he looked sick. "Before the third test there's something I'd like you to do. Umm, it's a preliminary for the third test," he coughed again. There was no doubt about it this man was sick. Why was he here then, shouldn't he be getting better? Surely that was more important than being a test examiner. "To decide who gets to participate in the main event."

A few one the genin asked about the preliminary. In Shikamaru's case demanding to know what Hayate meant by saying such a thing. Sakura went a bit further, ""Why aren't all the people here allowed to participate in the next test?"

"Umm, because the first and second test may have been too easy this year. We have a bit too many people remaining. According to Chunin Exam rules, we must have a preliminary and reduce the number of participants for the third test. As Hokage-sama indicated earlier, there will be guests at the third test. So, the fights could take too long; we are limited in time. Umm... so anyway... those who are not feeling well; those who feel like quitting after these explanations, please come forward now. Since we will be starting the preliminary immediately."

"Right now?" Kiba yelled.

Hinata glanced at him. Even though it was sudden, such a choice would be more difficult for those that had just finished the second test, not them. They had had time to rest and train further without worry of survival. She didn't see what he was so upset about. That chunin examiner had probably asked them to stay in the tower exactly for this reason after all. In case there was too many genin that passed the second test.

"Oh, umm... I forgot to tell you that from now on it will be individual battling. You may raise your hand based on your own judgement."

She caught Kiba looking at her from the corner of her eye at this statement. One on one she could manage, she knew that. It's when those numbers escalated that worried her, but she knew he was more worried with who she might get paired against.

There was only fifteen people. Which meant there was a twelve percent chance that her match-up could be one of her teammates and she couldn't possibly fight them. If that happened she would need to forfeit herself before they did, because they wouldn't be able to fight her either and she wouldn't want to take this chance to become a chunin away from them.

Hinata forced a smile on her lips. "I'll be fine," she murmured, so low that only Kiba and Shino could hear her.

"If there's no one that wishes to quit then let us begin the preliminary," Hayate spoke with another cough. "This preliminary will consist of one on one fighting. You will basically fight as if in a real life confrontation. Since we have fifteen entrants one of the chunin examiners will step in to be one of your opponents. We will conduct eight matches and, umm... the winners will advance to the third test. There are basically no rules. The fight continues until one of you dies or is knocked out or admits defeat. Umm, if you don't want to die then quickly acknowledge your defeat. But when I decide that the winner has clearly been established. Umm, since we don't want to pointlessly increase the amount of corpses, I'll jump in and stop things. And the object that controls your destiny is..."

"Open it," she could hear Anko speaking into a microphone headset.

A panel on the far left slid open, revealing an electric scoreboard. "Is this... this electric scoreboard will show the match-ups for each battle. Now, this is sudden but let's announce the two names of the first fight."

The screen flared to life, letters rolling across it like one of those casino machines before they finally settled into place.

_Temari vs Tenten_

"Now, these two entrants come to the front." The sand ninja from before stepped forward, breaking off from her squad to go and stand in the middle of the room, a wide grin on her face. Tenten had a similar smirk as she walked up to stand opposite of Temari. "The two participants in the first fight are Tenten and Temari. Are you ready?"

"Yes," Tenten confirmed quickly, her fingers twitching in the absence of a weapon to hold.

"Hell yeah," Temari spoke with that permanent grin of hers. She seemed quite confident of herself.

"If the rest of you could please move to the floor above we will start the match shortly." Everyone moved off the floor designated for the battles, going left or right up the stairs and to the floor above to look down on the two that would be fighting. Hinata settled in next to Kurenai and her teammates, looking over the railing.

"Good luck, Tenten!" Rock Lee, one of her teammates shouted.

"Begin!" Hayate shouted before moving off the fighting grounds and to the viewing floor.

Tenten was already moving along the field, checking distance from the looks of things. Temari on the other hand just stood there, watching her opponent bounce around like a cat might look at a mouse. "Judging distance, are we? Take all the time you need."

Tenten stopped moving a moment after, looking at her from her new chosen position. "I'm gonna wipe that grin off your face." The words only made Temari's grin widen before Tenten started throwing her kunai and other various ninja equipment at her.

The implements quickly fell to the ground though just after Tenten threw them, Temari opening the fan she held and sending a blast of wind to blow them off course. "Is that it?"

"Not even close," Tenten replied with a grin, raising her fingers for the weapons to raise back up in the air with her movements, a string attached each of them to one of her fingers. It was almost like puppetry jutsu with the way she moved the weapons into striking range, but then Temari swung her fan again, causing them to nearly fall back onto the floor.

Tenten launched herself into the air then, moving her equipment up with her, arranging them to come at all sides before flinging them down towards Temari. Even from where she was Hinata could hear the sand ninja chuckle just before drawing her fan up once again and blasting all the weapons from the air with her wind jutsu; even knocking Tenten from the air.

Temari snapped her fan shut, slamming it onto the ground right below Tenten's falling body so her back hit the top of the fan with a loud slam. The floor beneath Tenten and the fan cracked from the force. "How boring," Temari gloated over Tenten's unconscious body.

"The first match... winner, Temari!"

Temari snickered just before flinding her fan forward, throwing Tenten off and into the air once more, heading towards the wall. Hinata blinked to see Rock Lee down below now, catching his teammate before she hit the wall.

"Nice catch," Temari sneered.

"What are you doing? Is that how you treat someone who gave her all in battle?" Rock Lee demanded to know.

"Shut up," Temari snapped. "Take that loser and get out of here." Lee was moving before anyone could stop him, rushing forward at Temari to have his kick blocked by her fan. "Just as I thought. You're also as pathetic as your appear to be."

"What did you just say?" Lee ground out.

"Lee, stop!" One of the squad leaders were now on the battle field, moving toward his pupil.

"Gai sensei..."

"Damn," Temari cursed with the interruption in what she probably though was a fun game. How could another ninja treat a fellow shinobi like that?

"Temari, get up here!" One of the other sand genin shouted down. "You've been declared the winner. Stop wasting time with that pathetic guy."

"What?" Lee was now looking to the shortest of the sand ninja.

"That's enough, Lee." Gai placed a hand on his pupil's shoulder before looking up at the sand ninja. "Sand Team, there's something I'd like to warn you about, if you don't mind. this kid is strong. You better prepare yourself."

"Picking a fight with the sand guys, I wouldn't want any part of them," Kiba commented beside her.

"They are all incredible," she had to agree. If a bit blood thirsty. If that's how the girl treated her opponents she didn't want to know what the guys did to theirs. She had to hope the odds would be in her favor then.

"Okay," Hayate let out a cough. "The next match-up, please."

_Hyuuga . Hinata vs Hyuuga . Neji_

She could feel her heart stop beating for a second, dropping down into a stomach. Maybe she should have been more specific on one other person she didn't want to face in the preliminaries.

"Hinata?" She glanced to Kiba. "You can always forfeit."

Forfeit? After coming this far? No. She wanted to show her father just how far she could get in the exams, especially in something that wasn't a team effort. He surely would put the fact that she had passed the first two to her teammates efforts rather than hers. That's just how he was, and she couldn't let him do that. She wouldn't be ignored or looked down on anymore. Not from a single person in her clan and Neji certainly never bothered to acknowledge her presence at the compound either. "I told you before, I'll be fine."

Hinata turned from her teammates and walked to the stairs, descending down them to the battlefield to stand opposite of Neji who had taken the fast way down; jumping off from the railing. "I thought I would be facing someone more worthy."

She felt her jaw clench at his words. "So did I." She could hear the teams from above chattering away, about the main and branch houses, the rivalry between those houses, but that's not what this was about. That had never bothered her because no one even seemed to recognize her as being a part of the main house. Neji was still refusing to even say her name.

Her fingers curled into fists and she blocked out the noise from above, centering her attention on her opponent, her cousin, Neji Hyuuga.

"Begin the match!" Hayate shouted the traditional words before retreating to the raised platform of the field.

"Before we begin the fight, I would like to say something.  _You don't make a good shinobi."_ Her gut twisted hard."You are too kind. You wish for harmony and avoid conflict. You agree with others, never resisting. And you have no confidence in your-self. I always feel your sense of inferiority; that's why I though it would be best for you to remain a genin. But the Chunin Exam can only be taken as a team of three. You couldn't turn down your teammate's request and unwillingly entered, this is reality. Am I wrong?"

She could feel her fingers twitch at her side. How dare he. To think she entered because her teammates forced her into it? They would never do that. To think she only entered so they could be in the Chunin Exams? He didn't even know her. They had hardly ever spoken before. And so what if she was too kind to be a shinobi? It was better than being bloodthirsty like all those others; wishing to hurt and maim, and kill.  _How dare he._

"You're wrong," she snapped, meeting his gaze. "I entered for myself." For  _him_  as well. Itachi. Whether she won this match or not was irrelevant. She just needed to do her best. Prove to everyone in her clan, everyone that didn't care that she wasn't a mat to be walked on. She would use this day to change their views of her; whatever they happened to be. That she was weak.

Neji let out a snort. "Right. The thought never even crossed your mind that you had to keep going for your teammates? You never even considered that you were doing this for someone else? Trying to prove yourself?" Hinata kept her jaw shut. She had thought about it and she hated him for seeing through her so easily. He didn't  _know_  her. These were all just lucky guesses. "Is silence your answer?"

She forced her jaw open. "Fine. I thought about it. I  _am_  going to prove myself. And I'm doing this for  _him_ , just as much as I'm doing it for myself."

Neji blinked, once. "Him?"

"That's none of your business."

His own eyes narrowed back at her. "I guess not." Then Neji was moving quickly toward her, byakugan activated.

She activated her own just before they clashed, feet moving beneath her to take up that familiar stance that he was now using, placing her palms outward. Hinata was quick to block an upward strike, moving down to block another and then bending back to dodge a blow to the chest. She would not lose to him.

Hinata turned swiftly to get her body to his side and began striking out as his arm, scowling as he blocked each of her attacks. Damn him. She sped up her attacks, adjusting her body as he faced her fully once again. Hinata twisted her upper body, palm skimming his shoulder. I can do this. She twisted her body again, maneuvering behind him and hitting toward his back to get her hand caught in his arm; but she only grinned as her other hand came around and hit him in the chest.

She felt an impact on her own chest in the same instant and coughed a moment later, a warm liquid dribbling from her mouth. "That's it? This all you have to prove?" Hinata pulled back with her other hand, intending to hit him in the chest again when grabbed the arm of her coat and tugged it down her arm.

Her eyes widened upon seeing the bruises along her flesh, right where her chakra points were for her arms. Damn it. "No..."

"Yes. I've been cutting off your chakra flow from the very beginning. Even if you can hit me you can't do any damage, and you didn't even notice."

Her eyes narrowed, teeth grinding together. No, this couldn't be happening. She promised she wouldn't go down without a fight. To not have even scratched him. She couldn't... she couldn't lose like this to him!

Hinata wrenched her arm from his grip as she tightened her other hand into a fist. Him? Cut off her chakra points? Yeah, right. She swung her fist forward to land on his jaw, concentrating on moving the rest of her chakra down. Hinata wasted no time to turn and bring her knee up into his gut, her leg glowing with the chakra she used to cut off his own opening points in the area.

He doubled over on the ground and she felt a second of pride when a spatter of red followed onto the tile when he coughed. Then she could feel his hand connect with her chest again and took a step back as she coughed violently, more blood dribbling up and over her own chin.

She could see him standing up again from the corner of her eye, his own narrowed at her. But when he took a step toward her a form appeared between him and her. "This match is over!" It was Hayate. Three other ninja had appeared, leaders of the squads from the Leaf village: Kakashi, Gai, and Kurenai were restraining Neji now. They were stopping him from dealing another strike to her heart.

Hinata let go of the breath she had been holding. Her fingers were poised over the open pocket on her hip, the tips grazing the edge of a kunai.

Her hand dropped from her side to hang by her thigh. She reached across with her other hand to grab at her arm, eyes still wide as she stood still.

"Neji, give it a rest. You gave me a warm promise not to lose your head over this main family stuff," Gai was saying, but even from here she could see Neji's scowl.

The way his eyes flickered to where her hand had just been. "Why do all the jounin have to jump in?"

She didn't have much time to think over such a selfish question when she felt her heart clench painfully in her chest and fell forward onto her hands and knees to cough up more blood onto the floor.

"Hinata!" she could hear various voices shout her name as her vision blurred. A hand on her arm, prompting her to lie back on the floor. Her eyes flickered open for a moment to see Kurenai kneeling beside her, Kiba and Shino standing on the other side of her body.

"Are you alright, Hinata?" Kiba asked, leaning over to look down at her.

She tried to answer but only managed another cough. Her chest hurt... She could feel a hand on it and her gaze flickered over to Kurenai before her eyes shut once more.

The voices seemed to float above her. "Medical team! What are you doing? Hurry!"

"At this rate she won't last ten minutes! Take her to the emergency medical room! Hurry! Move!"

"You two, focus on the preliminaries. I'll be going with Hinata."

"But..."

"Come on."

"Hang in there, Hinata."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I'm wrapping my fingers in bandages. Hope you enjoyed the first two tests and the preliminaries.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now my version of the Chunin Exam Arc can really start.

"Come on! Sakura already said she would go with me. You can take a few minutes out of your training to go visit Hinata with the two of us." When Sasuke didn't reply, still glaring at Naruto for interrupting him ten minutes before and not leaving him alone for the duration of those minutes Naruto started up again, "Did I mention Sakura will be there?"

Great. Now he  _had_  to torture his teammate. "What difference does that make? You'll still be there." At Naruto's crest fallen face he relented somewhat. "Why do you want to go and visit Hinata anyway? She's not in your squad."

"Because I heard she finally stabilized after her fight with Neji and she can take visitors now. Don't you want to go and wish her well at the very least? That fight was brutal."

Did he really need to answer this question for the millionth time?

"Her own team is out on a mission and won't be back until tomorrow. Sakura even agreed with me that it would be nice to go and give her some company for today. She's going to bring flowers to liven up the room somewhat."

Sasuke had to stop himself from sighing out loud. "I'm not bringing flowers."

Naruto perked up instantly. "You'll go?" A second of silence confirmed that he wasn't going to say it again and Naruto jumped to his feet. "Great! We'll meet up at the hospital in an hour, okay? I got to go and tell Sakura that you caved!" Somehow it seemed like too much effort to stand up and punch Naruto in the face for being unable to control the filter between his brain and mouth. If he even had a filter that is. "Remember it's room four hundred thirty six." With that Naruto left in a hurry to find Sakura.

Sasuke turned his attention back to the training grounds in front of him, but he didn't move back over to the kunai he had left on the grass. His mind was back at that last test for the Chunin Exam, the preliminaries anyways. He had been training for the finals coming up before Naruto came over.

The truth was that the fight between the two Hyuuga had been brutal, and for the life of him he couldn't understand it. His brother and him would never beat each other an inch from death.

It was obvious that there was some animosity between them or something, but to go so far as to kill a member of your family; to beat them down until they're bruised and puking up blood for an exam? What kind of a person did that? He knew about the two different houses in the Hyuuga clan just like everyone else, but why was the relationship so strained between them? He didn't get it and he didn't particularly want to anyways.

He had wished Neji had been taken down a peg or two. The older brat might as well have been dilerious with his own talent. It's no wonder he snapped when Hinata actually landed a lasting hit. That 'genius' probably hadn't even thought it was possible and he wished the jounin hadn't intervened so he could see Neji in the hospital as well. Not to go and wish him well though. Just to taunt him.

Why had the jounin intervened? It was the only thing he agreed on when it came to Neji. It had been unnecessary in his eyes. He had seen Hinata going for her kunai, about to completely drop the gentle fist style and go for the artery on Neji's wrist when he got into range. The fucking self-proclaimed genius probably wouldn't have even seen it coming.

Timid Hinata slicing at Neji's major artery? That would have put him in the hospital, possibly out of the Chunin Exams all together. The Hokage had said to fight like it was a real mission.

Well, he could put Neji in the hospital himself in the final test. He had chosen the stick with the Hyuuga's name.

The village had to be looking forward to that fight, along with all those influential people that hired shinobi. With the known feud between the clans it would certainly be hyped up. Even though the feud itself had died down with most of his clan years ago. For some reason he had heard villagers whispering about it before, which had grown more frequent and less rare over the past few days. In a way it was ridiculous, but at the time he didn't care much for the Hyuuga himself. One Uchiha left in the village and there was still a feud. But it was just because of Neji, he could care less about all the other members. He held no real opinion on them.

Why had he let Naruto talk him into going to visit Hinata?

Sasuke bent down to grab one of the kunai, throwing it at a tree so it sunk in by an inch. Maybe he should bring something. Just to make the people stop talking about the damn feud. Not flowers though. Sakura was taking care of that. What was an appropriate gift for someone in the hospital that you didn't really know? Some sort of food maybe? He heard the hospital cafeteria sucked.

What did girls like? Besides chocolate that is. Sakura would have a fit whether Hinata was conscious or not if he gave her that. Fruit, then? That seemed to be the safest bet.

He got up from the fallen tree and began the walk to the market. Sasuke glanced into one of the stores, checking the time.

Ten minutes left to get to the hospital. It took about fifteen to walk there from where he was and he still needed to pick up the fruit. Well, he didn't feel like running there for someone that he didn't even consider a friend. He had told Naruto he would be there and he would. Just five or ten minutes late. It shouldn't be a big deal.

He stopped at a stand, picking out about a dozen strawberries from the shelf and dropping them into a bag. Sasuke handed the woman running the stand the money and started walking in the direction of the hospital again, the bag swinging at his side.

When he got to the hospital he took one look at the front desk and walked away from the door. It was way too crowded and he was already late. Plus if they were that busy they wouldn't notice him going in through the back anyway.

Sasuke pushed the back door open, walking in to turn right and start ascending the stairs that were adjacent with the door. There were a pair of loud voices above and he instantly recognized both.

"What do you mean we have to leave?" Naruto.

"Hyuuga Hinata is stable, but the doctor is still concerned that she could go back into a critical state." Bullshit nurse.

"We're not leaving until visiting hours or over and-" Sakura, yelling at the top of her lungs before being cut off.

"I'm not asking you to leave I'm telling you to leave for your friend's health. Now," A string of rather colorful language sounded in the second the nurse was silent. "Just take the two of them out of here."

Sasuke paused on the last step to hear an extra pair of footsteps and scowled. Apparently the nurse had gotten security involved to the haul the two off. Well, this was just perfect. Naruto and Sakura were being thrown out of the hospital for the day by the sounds of it and he still had the fruit on him so he couldn't just leave and go back to training. Eh, he could, but he had gotten them for Hinata originally not himself. The room wasn't that far so it wasn't much of a time consumer as it might have originally been had Naruto and Sakura been able to remain there.

He would just drop them off and leave. Sasuke waited a good half minute before entering back into the hall once he was sure the security and that nurse were gone. He slipped into the room, closing the door silently behind him.

The room only had the one bed, so at least no one could call for security and Hinata looked out of it anyway. With a sigh Sasuke went over to set the bag of strawberries on the desk next to her before glancing over the screens. Now, he wasn't an expert or anything but as far as he could tell Hinata was in the green. That nurse really had been bullshitting.

"Well Hinata, you got two deranged visitors and me. Enjoy the strawberries and..." he glanced over to the window to see the flower Sakura had brought. "A sunflower."

Well, it was something until her squad could come and visit her instead of his own. If they had even been able to do much visiting. It didn't really sound like it though. The nurse probably let them give her the flower then demanded that they leave. Temperamental bullshit nurse.

A cough sounded from the bed and he glanced to Hinata to see thin slits of her eyes from below heavy eyelids. "Where..." She coughed again, wincing a moment later from the pain the simple action must have caused.

"Your squad is out on a mission. They won't be in to see you until tomorrow, at the earliest." Because it really was just an estimate. There was no way to know if a mission would ever go as planned and even though Shino had made it to the final test he was still a genin. Sasuke was just thankful that so far Kakashi had kept him out of any missions so he had more time to focus on the test.

"N-no," she coughed mid-word. "Ita... where's... Itachi."

His fingers twitched at his side. Itachi? How would he know that? He hadn't seen him for years. Not since the night everything went to hell and he lost everyone he ever cared about. Why was she asking for his brother opposed to her own squad?

"This is the best time to do it. This way it will be official, like it was with Hiashi and Hizashi." His mind came to a screeching halt at the voice of the Hyuuga elder coming from down the hall. "If you need to hold her down during the process then do it. I want the seal on her by the end of the day. And when I say, 'the end of the day' I mean in the next hour. This isn't an all day jutsu. Her sister will remain the heiress since Hinata clearly isn't qualified." A snort sounded after the words and Sasuke turned his attention to the door.

By the sounds of it the man was still halfway down the hall. It would take at least a minute for him to get here, most of which Sasuke was attributing to his old age. He turned back to look at Hinata as the elder began speaking again, "Just be quick about it. If she gives you problems knock her out or something. I don't care. They're not getting the byakugan from her. That secret remains with us, no matter what. Got it?"

At least two men replied, "Yes, sir."

Damn it. Sasuke stopped himself from tearing his lip open. These idiots would appear right when he finally had a lead on his brother. And beyond that issue what was this curse they were trying to apply to Hinata? Who was they? Who wasn't getting the byakugan? About half of the ninja world could answer to that last one.

He reached forward, tearing out the wire leading to the alarm button if anything happened to the equipment first even though he suspected it was disabled. Hold her down? They were going to force a curse on her and she would have been jabbing at the button instantly with the condition she was in.

Sasuke moved quickly now as the footsteps drew closer: tearing off the tubes connecting to her arms and feeding some pain killer into her body - he assumed it was pain killer, - cutting off the power to the equipment, removing the pad from her wrist that had been monitoring her heart rate, and grabbing the bag of strawberries to hold the rolled up end in his teeth. There was no reason to leave any evidence that he had been here after Sakura and Naruto. For all his friends knew he hadn't even showed up.

With a glance at the window to check that it was open he slipped his arms beneath Hinata's body, picking her up and jumping out, not sticking around for even a second more to listen to what would surely be outrage of some sort.

He seeked out the back passages of the village, sticking to the alleys and the shadows as he sprinted between the buildings. Hinata had sunk back into sleep before he even left the hospital so he didn't have to worry about her making a noise that might direct someone's attention to them. The only thing Sasuke had to worry about was running into someone else using these paths, but thankfully he met no one and made it to the Uchiha compound that was still mostly barren after all these years. Which was partly his doing. He hadn't allowed for a villager to come inside and set up shop or take even one of the houses. They belonged to his clan, not the village.

Once inside his own house he laid Hinata down on the couch, moving instantly into the bathroom to root around the cupboards for some medicine similar to the one he had seen in the hospital. He grit his teeth before moving into his parent's old room and opening his mother's closet. She always seemed to have everything required for an emergency, something only a practiced shinobi would do when they happened to be raising a family of them.

Sasuke snatched the medicine bottle from one of the baskets, glancing around for a second longer until he found another bottle for coughs and grabbed a few packets of cough drops as well. He moved out of the closet, shutting it securely behind him before moving back into the living room to set them down on the coffee table. He dropped the bag out from his mouth as he set the medicine he had collected down in front of her form. "Here." He spun open the bottle of cough medicine, pouring some into the cap of the bottle before setting it closer toward her.

He watched from the corner of his eye as she sat up partially and drained the liquid from the cap, coughing a second afterwards before her gaze turned to him. Her eyelids were still heavy, obscuring most of her vision, but he could tell from the look of her that she had heard the words of the Hyuuga elder not too long ago. "Thank you."

Sasuke muttered a, "You're welcome," in return. As much as he wanted to ask her about Itachi now didn't seem appropriate. He doubted she could concentrate long enough to answer even one of his questions anyway. She needed sleep, even he could see that. He would just have to wait.

He tore open one of the packets with his fingers and handed her the cough drop next. With the amount of pain killer she had been receiving he didn't see any reason to give her any now or even later. It was only there for if she needed it and she would be a much better judge of that than him.

"Do you need something to drink?" At the small nod of her head he got up to get a glass and some water from the tap. Sasuke retrieved a bowl while it was getting filled, grabbing the glass a second later to set out on the table and then taking the bag with him back into the kitchen. He cleaned the strawberries off before cutting them up and setting them into the bowl, turning the water off after he was done.

He walked back out to set the bowl of strawberries down in front of her. "You can stay here for now." He wasn't going to let the Hyuuga find her until she was better and he had gotten answers from her.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise, surprise.

"Have you heard of anything?" A second of silence filled the room before his father's fist hit the table. "Nothing. From either of you? How can she just vanish in thin air?"

Hiashi kept his lips pressed into a thin line as his gaze stayed on the red angry face of his elder. It was a stupid question, really. One didn't vanish into thin air. Hinata was out there - somewhere - she hadn't evaporated like water in a boiling pot.

Besides that, it wasn't his responsibility to keep an eye on her. He had tossed that aside to Kurenai years ago when Hinata had lost the fight against her sister and therefore lost the right to be called heiress. It wasn't his fault the woman hadn't been there in the hospital room keeping an eye on his daughter; she had been out on a mission, being held responsible for her duties and that's what should come first. One's duty to the village, to the clan. He hadn't bothered to look for his daughter the first day when his father came storming into his room announcing his first daughter was missing, probably kidnapped by Cloud Ninja or a number of anyone else interested in obtaining the byakugan.

If that was the case she wouldn't be gone for long. It made no sense to him to waste his time on a fruitless search when Itachi was sure to hunt those people down - if that was even the case, he wasn't entirely sure himself. He was missing a piece of the picture and that irritated him. It was the only thing about all of this that set his teeth on edge. He had always known everything concerning Hinata, there was no reason for him to be left in the dark now.

"I'm sure she'll show up-" Hizashi tried to calm their father down but it only seemed to get him more riled up.

"Right," his father sneered. " _He_  probably took her."

"It's a couple years to early for that," Hiashi spoke up, not dropping his gaze when his father narrowed his eyes at him.

"Who cares if it's early for him to snatch her away? He's always been after her eyes, not her. She could show up in the next day blind and you wouldn't bat an eyelash would you?" Hiashi had to stop the snort of laughter that was trying to escape his lungs. Him bat an eyelash? Over such an impossibility? And even if by some odd chance that that did happen he knew his father would only feel joy over the matter.

Huh. He was calling his own son a monster when he himself was the monster. Fucking hypocrite. "You seem very certain that it's him. So why are you bothering to look? If he doesn't want you to find him or her you won't."

"You could show more concern for your daughter if he had taken her," his father spat.

Hiashi had to stop himself from rolling his eyes at the performance.

If Itachi had taken her - and that was a big  _if_ \- he would have moved her completely out of the Fire Country. Not wait for the Anbu to catch up with him, a group that he would know the inner workings of well since he had led a squad of his own when he was younger. It would be a walk in the park for the S-class ranking criminal to avoid them. As for all the other potential people that might have taken her... they would have a much harder time evading the Anbu, if they were used to find her like his father seemed to want so desperately.

The Hokage had already made his stance clear on the matter. That without any evidence of foul play he wouldn't waste resources like the Anbu on a missing member of the Hyuuga clan. Hiashi knew it wasn't out of spite - like his father seemed to think - but a genuine lack of evidence.

No demands had been made. There was no news from surrounding villages of a girl that looked to be Hinata showing up there. No other ninja village was taking responsibility for her disappearance. She could have just ripped out the wires herself and gotten out of bed.

He had heard of a few genin doing just that to go and train instead after losing their match in the preliminaries. Besides, the nurses had already assured him that Hinata was stable and not likely to go into a state of emergency care. She had developed a case of the cold while recovering but that was it, nothing serious. If she had checked herself out early there was no need to panic like this.

So  _what_ was the big deal?

"I told you all those years ago not to sign that damn contract. You  _know_  they were after her eyes, didn't you?" Hiashi had figured that was part of the reason the Uchiha had agreed with the marriage contract, but he doubted that was the complete reason. With the death of most of the clan though he had given up on figuring out the real reason that might have caused problems for his own reason for signing the contract. It just wasn't important anymore. That and with the Uchiha Clan in it's current state he had lost interest in his own reason for it years ago. The fact that he couldn't make a different arrangement for her even after that had only been irritating for those first few years after the massacre. He had made a new plan to take care of that years ago and it was the definition of simplicity.

The gears shifted so quickly in his head it nearly made his vision do a one-eighty. All this talk of her eyes, always the damn  _eyes_ ; her being blind, eyes gorged out when she came back. How had he missed it?

"You didn't go to the hospital to check on her that day, did you?" he had to stop the anger from becoming apparent in his voice. The damn old fool.

"I set out to do exactly what I said I would."

Hiashi let his fingers curl from beneath the table, away from his father's searching gaze. "To put the seal on her you mean. No wonder you can't find her. She's hiding from  _you_."

His father only scowled at the accusation, leaning forward ever so slightly to glare at him head-on. "You said you would take care of it and you haven't. What else do you think I was going to do? Wait around for you to do it yourself when she was in such a perfect condition so that it could be taken care of then and there? If she had still been in her room that is."

It was certainly a good thing she hadn't been there. "I said I would take care of the issue with Hinata and the contract and that's exactly what I've been doing all these years. So don't try and step in with your own ideas of how to handle the situation. I have everything under control. I'm the Head of this clan, you put me in the position when I was old enough so worry about yourself instead of my daughter."

"Maybe I should have given the position to your brother instead. He couldn't be nearly as incompetent as you." His father straightened then, the trademark sign that he was about go on a long rant and after the first few sentences it would be time to tune out. "You haven't done a damn thing after finding that contract beneath the rubble. You couldn't even get to it beneath the stone." The jutsu surrounding it didn't allow for the contract to be extracted at the time he had found it and recognized the flow of chakra as Mikoto's and the jutsu that kept the contract sealed there in the first place. But his father already knew this. It was impossible to remove it until the time on the seal ran out and even if he had been able to remove the contract from the place it wouldn't have changed a thing. "The only progress you've made this whole time is making Hanabi heiress and preparing her for the position, and while I agree with that decision you have done nothing-"

He chose then to tune out completely. His father would just keep regurgitating the same shit until he thought he had gotten his point across an hour or two later.

Part of it was because his father was blind to the whole picture. But he didn't want to think of what solution the elder would make if he knew about the last and final piece. The one Itachi had left for him the night of the massacre to find later that day.

It had been in his room, actually. A leaf caught in the panes of wood leading outside, and scrawled onto the green flesh was just one message, one promise.

_If the seal is on her when I arrive your entire clan is dead._

**/ / /**

The sound of birds chirping erupted in his ears just before the rock wall shattered into pieces, chunks of the rock falling down onto the ground to kick up large clouds of dust around them. When the air cleared up there was a noticeable missing part of the rock that Sasuke had just hit with the chidori.

"Good job," he said, eyeing the cracks that had splintered out from the area. One strike with taijutsu alone would be capable of breaking the rest into pieces. But that wasn't important it was Sasuke's training that was taking priority; which could go so much faster if the young genin didn't insist on going back to the village to his own house to rest rather than just sleeping out here. To his credit though he made the trip lightning fast from the two destinations. "You want to try it once more for the day?"

It was completely up to Sasuke. He knew his chakra limits better than Kakashi did as his mentor.

"No," the reply came fast, but the genin was looking in the direction of the village rather than at him. He was distracted. Sasuke always got like that recently when the sun began to go down, and he was always looking in the direction of the village, as if he could see it from here.

"Do you think the Hyuugas found Hinata yet?" The news of her disappearance had been flying around the village for the past few days. Some of the ninja had gone looking for her but it was mainly the Hyuuga that searched. Except for Hiashi, he had noticed, the man didn't seem concerned about the matter at all. That way he saw it was if the father wasn't worried there was no reason for anyone else to be. Hiashi either knew where she was or he had an idea. Why he didn't share it with the rest of the clan was a Hyuuga matter though and he didn't care to put himself in a position that had to deal with that clan's inner workings.

Sasuke let out a snort. "Are they still talking about that? She probably just doesn't want to be there and they're making a big deal because she usually bends over backwards to try and please them."

He wouldn't have thought anything more of it if Sasuke hadn't gotten so defensive, spouting a usual story that might have gone over just fine if he had known Sasuke and her had ever interacted. But he couldn't remember much times when Sasuke wasn't with his own teammates and he certainly had never taken interest in ninja from other squads unless he wanted to beat them in a fight. Hinata fit neither category though. Plus Sasuke didn't know her well enough to know what was going on in the Hyuuga clan at the moment. Even Kakashi didn't pay much attention to them. So he knew the supposed reasoning of why she might not be there was just made up on the fly.

Naruto had mentioned going to visit Hinata in the hospital with Sakura and dragging Sasuke along with him - there was no way the Uchiha would go of his own free will. Except Naruto and Sakura had been thrown out of the room from what he had heard, shortly after arriving and Sasuke had never shown up.

At least, they thought he had ditched them.

Kakashi glanced to Sasuke again to see he was back to looking at the village. He must have shown up afterward, though there had just been flowers left in the room Hinata had gone 'missing' from. It had been shortly after his entire squad of genin was suppose to be there that this happened.

It would certainly explain why Sasuke left for the night to go back home if the girl was at his own home and sick. Something must have happened in the hospital for him to take her from the room even if all she had was the sniffles. She had been in critical condition the day before, recovering from treatment for her heart.

"Okay, then. Well, time to go-" Sasuke had taken off before he was even done dismissing him from his training.

**/ / /**

He was walking fast down the empty street and towards his house. Surely tonight he might get something out of her about his brother. Anything that could help him locate him or - hell, even make everyone stop talking about him as if he was the murderer. His brother couldn't come back if the whole village thought he was the one that had killed the clan. It would make living here impossible for him.

When had that crap started anyway? It had to have been pretty quick for Itachi to just disappear like that - the Hyuuga knew nothing when it came to someone actually leaving you - to decide to get out of the village before they found him and killed him for something he hadn't done. There was no way he could have actually done it.

A whole clan? Even his brother - poster child for the Uchiha - couldn't have been capable of that.

Sasuke stopped at the door, taking out his keys to unlock the door and slide it open-

His hand stopped in midair, his head whirling quickly in the direction of Hinata, who had taken to sleeping in his brother's room. There was another chakra signature in the room. He stepped inside, turning to quickly shut the door and lock it before walking through the house and down the hallway, fingers twitching at his sides. His senses had to be off. It couldn't be  _him_. It just couldn't-

He pulled back the door and it slid silently over the ground to reveal two figures. Sasuke recognized both instantly.

Hinata was laid out on a new mattress, sound asleep, chest rising and falling easily for once. It seemed she was finally over that cold. Sitting next to her, one hand resting on her forehead was his brother,  _Itachi_. He had moved her bangs out of the way and was stroking the skin so that it held a light pink tinge from the continued action. But he was here, actually here. It wasn't a ghost, a snippet of his imagination.

Itachi shifted, raising a hand up and Sasuke's eyes quickly moved to the hand that held Hinata's; the fingers loosening their grip and placing her own hand on her stomach. The dark figure leaned over as he did this, placing a kiss on her forehead before standing up and his eyes met his brothers an instant later. "Hello, Sasuke."

His lips parted but he couldn't force any words out. The harder he tried the more he felt the trembling of his lips begin to spread to the rest of his body. "I-ita-chi," once the name had finally fallen from his lips he could feel a burning along his cheeks. His eyes were on fire when a sob slipped from him, the tears coming down even faster now.

His brother was back. He was home.

He felt arms grip at his shoulders, could hear Itachi's words that he wanted to talk in the living room, away from Hinata; but it all passed over him like a fog as his brother led him away from the room, the door closing softly behind them. The dull thump of the footfalls echoed in the head as he walked back into the living room to sit down on the couch.

His brother sat back on the coffee table, facing him. "You came back," he forced the thoughts out and into words.

Itachi gave a thin smile in reply and he felt the tears sting at his cheeks. He wasn't going to stay. "I heard that Hinata went missing."

"You came back because Hinata was missing?" his own words sounded hollow in his ears.

"That's what I heard anyway. That she was taken out of the hospital while in critical condition."

"She was stable, " Sasuke snapped, raising his hands to brush away the tears as he looked at his brother.

"So you did take her from the hospital," his brother just seemed to be confirming his own suspicions.

"Yes," he replied, tone more even now. "Naruto and Sakura wanted to check on her after the preliminaries since her teammates weren't in the village when Hinata was allowed to take visitors; they still aren't here yet. There suppose to be back tomorrow from their mission, but it could be another day or two until then. So we went to visit her," he explained, since his brother hadn't said anything else he figured he wanted to know the details. "Naruto and Sakura got there on time and went to see her. Sakura left flowers before the nurse threw them out, I heard them from down the hall since I arrived late due to training. I went into the room to drop off some fruit when Hinata said your name," Sasuke paused, still unsure why she had spoken it. As if she knew him and yet whenever he had asked her a question about his brother she would go silent. Which was just a tad quieter than she usually was. "Then I heard the Hyuuga elder talking in the hall, saying something about placing a seal on Hinata. So I took her out of the hospital since after hearing him say that she looked petrified and she couldn't really move to defend herself as it was."

His brother remained silent even after the explanation and Sasuke glanced to the room Hinata was resting in before looking back to Itachi. "Why did you come back when she supposedly went missing?" It made no sense, and now that his head was clearing out it made even less sense with how he found his brother; kissing Hinata before even looking at him.

Itachi's gaze only softened at his own harsh tone though. "I've been watching you. Both of you, when I can."

Sasuke blinked, staring at him. Watching him? Why? Why hadn't he ever shown himself before now if Itachi had been watching him all these years? A million questions were swimming through his head but only one managed to get out, "Why are you watching  _her_? She's a Hyuuga."

"Hinata..." Itachi paused for a moment, looking back towards his old room and when he turned back to Sasuke he spoke in a softer tone, "She's my fiance. Has been since I was seven. Her father still hasn't told her about the contract."

He could feel his fingers twitch at his side.  _What?_  "Mother never said anything about it."

Itachi only gave a small shrug of his shoulders. "I was the one involved with the contract. You were only two at the time."

When Itachi didn't offer up a further explanation Sasuke sunk back into the couch, still staring at him. Hinata was Itachi's fiance? Future wife? Then that made her his sister-in-law. He had a sister-in-law.

"Sasuke." He raised his gaze to meet Itachi's. "Don't say anything to Hinata about it. Her father should be the one to tell her. But... could you keep an eye on her? Just when I can't."

"Yeah," the word slipped from him instantly.

"Don't let the elder near her, okay?" Sasuke gave a nod of his head. "I'll be back for the final test. I need to get back to my own mission." He just gave another nod of his head, listening to the sound of Itachi's footsteps on the floor before they vanished out the side-door.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Miss me?

He had settled himself against the wall outside of his brother's room, staring at the wall opposite him for a good portion of the night, just trying to make sense of everything. Everything involving the girl in the room behind him, Hinata, who was currently fast asleep. She had remained that way since Itachi left, after dumping the fact that he had been watching them from a distance. That he had been watching  _her_ because she was his fiance.

It still sounded ridiculous in his ears. Sasuke knew his brother had no reason to lie, but he kept wondering why he hadn't known any of this before. Why his mother hadn't told him.

He turned his head so his ear was pressed to the wood, confirming Hinata's breathing was still even before he got up from the floor to walk into his parent's room. It didn't take long until his gaze settled on a picture of the two of them and he walked over, picking it up before sitting down on their bed. There was no cloud of dust when he did this, so Itachi must have cleaned the room up himself when he was here. Usually Sasuke kept it in a pristine condition, but his training hadn't allowed him to do that lately. He fell back onto the bed, drinking in the calming scent of his mother's chosen scented candles.

One was currently lit on her vanity, that had become more of a shrine as the years had passed. Itachi must have lit it earlier, possibly when he first got here as only a fourth of the wax remained within the small container.

Why hadn't she said anything to him? The question repeated in his head as he stared at her smiling face, alongside his father's semi-grin. Even his father hadn't said a word about it. Neither had Itachi, up until now that is.

Had they meant for it to be a secret? He supposed at the tender age of two, keeping a secret wouldn't really be a possibility, even so... Surely they could have said something to him when he was older? Perhaps he simply hadn't gotten old enough for them to tell him before...

He raised a hand to rub at his eyes, keeping his vision clear as he gazed up at his parents. That had to be it. They hadn't been given the opportunity to tell him when they would have wanted to. And now, since they were dead, Itachi had told him about the contract between his clan and the Hyuuga.

That in itself was also confusing. Especially when he took into account the time when the contract was even made. He remembered hearing of the two clans being openly hostile with each other for years, not including the ones after he was two though. The usual animosity had simmered down and only the Hyuuga seemed to try and pick a fight at times. In those instances a member of his clan would respond in kind, a simple kindling for the fire that still brewed between the two clans. But if the Hyuuga had drawn up a marriage contract with them and these confrontations were down to a minimum, then at the very least they had been trying to reconcile and bring the two clans together.

The marriage contract must have been made with the intention to stop the hostility between them completely. Though, he didn't know who had offered up the suggestion, it seemed beneficial to all members that must have been involved with it. But was that even necessary anymore? It was just him and Itachi and though, he hadn't cared for the Hyuuga before this he could only feel his own blood simmer with that old hate for them.

What was this seal they had wanted to place on Hinata? Itachi had specifically asked that he didn't let the Hyuuga elder near her, but he was sure that no one that worked for the elder should be close to her either. This didn't seem to include her father, though. That man hadn't asked a single Hyuuga to go and find his missing daughter. In fact, he didn't seem to even acknowledge that she could potentially be missing. Of course, it made sense now.

Hiashi would have been involved with the contract and if Hinata had been taken by someone other than Sasuke, Itachi surely would have hunted them down. The man just clearly wasn't concerned about his daughter when his brother was so intent on protecting her. Whether it be from ninja outside this village or her own clan. Itachi hadn't mentioned a word about Hiashi, either. Then, at the very least - he assumed - he should be able to trust Hiashi with Hinata if she went back to the Hyuuga Compound now that she was better.

_If._

He wasn't sure if he should allow that or not if she did try to leave. After what the elder had said...

_"They're not getting the byakugan from her. That secret remains with us, no matter what. Got it?"_

Sasuke could suddenly hear his blood rushing beneath the skin, quickly heating up as anger pounded through his veins, until it was like molten lava running through his body.

That... that disgusting old Hyuuga! Thinking his clan had simply agreed to the contract to obtain the byakugan, and even if that was part of the reason for it... How could he still think that with the condition of his clan? It was only him and Itachi after all! How much of a threat could they be to the elder? Someone who obviously couldn't see past his own nose and likely couldn't find his ass if he used both hands.

The damned seal. It had to do something to her byakugan ability. Seal it.

Sasuke's vision flashed red, temporarily making the photo in front of him appear to be covered in blood.

If the elder even attempted to come near his sister again with that jutsu he'd cut the old fool's own byakugan eyes from his head!

**/ / /**

She giggled softly as Naruto creeped forward, closer and closer to his target. It was with a wink back at her that he raised a hand to knock on the door then dodged into the bushes nearby.

Sakura covered her hand to stifle her laughter when after a few seconds she could hear footsteps approaching from the other side of the door. When she heard them stop in their path she quickly lowered her hand, fixing her facial features so that she didn't look like she was about to burst out laughing.

The door swung open slowly in the next second and she smiled to see Sasuke standing there in the doorway, lips pulled down into some half-scowl. Perhaps they had come too early in the morning, but it was done now.

"Sakura," Sasuke said in such a lone tone it sent a shiver down her spine in anticipation. Suddenly she wished she had come alone. "What is Naruto doing with you?"

She froze, but the other person in the bushes did not. Naruto threw himself out of the foliage, past the doorway, to collide with Sasuke's body in a matter of seconds. "Good morning!" Their universal idiot block-head friend announced to all the abandoned buildings within earshot, surely startling a few ghosts from their collective slumber.

There was a loud  _thump_  as the two of them hit the floor and Sakura moved inside quickly to reach their side. "Are you okay?"

"No," Sasuke's reply was instant. "I got an idiot on top of me at five in the damn morning." Sasuke was glaring up at Naruto as he said the words.

Naruto only laughed in response though, jumping up and off Sasuke just a second before the other boy would surely have hit him. "Aren't you just a little bit happy to see me?"

"Is that a serious question?" Sasuke snapped as he got up, moving beyond Naruto to slam the door closed behind him. At least he was kicking either of them out for coming here so early.

"Yes," Naruto replied too fast, with a grin plastered over his face.

"That one was  _meant_ to be rhetorical."

"Take it easy you two," Sakura said with a laugh. "We only meant to come and get you for some early training as a group before you went to see Kakashi-" she stopped mid-sentence as her eyes fell on a young girl in the room, having still not said a word, staring at the three of them with wide white eyes.

Hinata Hyuuga.

But what was she doing  _here_? In Sasuke's  _house_? At  _this_  time in the morning? Wasn't she... wasn't she  _suppose_  to be missing for kami's sake? Or had she been here this  _whole_  time?

" _Damn_." She could barely hear Sasuke as her blood roared in her ears.

"What are you doing here?" Sakura yelled as loud as her vocal cords would allow. "Why are you in Sasuke's house? How did you get in here? Did you sneak in at night to watch my beloved Sasuke?" Sakura covered the distance between the two of them quickly, to tower over the other girl as she yelled, "When did you get here? You've been missing from the hospital for nearly a week now! What the hell are you doing here? Answer me!"

Hinata only stared up at her though, legs curled up now so her knees bumped into her chin. "I... I..." she was stammering out only the one word, repeatedly.

Suddenly she felt a finger poke against her back. "Nope. That wasn't it."

Every muscle in her body twitched at hearing Naruto's voice and she turned to face him with a scowl to rival Hiashi's. "What are you doing Naruto?"

His finger jabbed into her stomach now and he peered up at her with an awkward grin since he was bent over. She folded her arms beneath her chest in response. "I was looking for your personality switch."

"My..." Her fingers curled into a fist. "Such a thing doesn't exist, you idiot!"

"Ow!" Naruto was doubled over in the next second, clutching his head that she had just struck with her fist. "So violent. You really should get that checked," Naruto muttered, hands still covering his head. Upon seeing her eyes narrowing he threw his hands up, though. "Joking! Joking! I'm a jester! Don't hurt me!"

With a huff Sakura turned from Naruto, jumping over the coffee table to Sasuke's side, who was currently looking down at Naruto with obvious distaste. "Did you let that girl into your house?"

His gaze quickly settled on her. "Of course I did. And her name's Hinata, remember? You went to check on her the day she went missing from the hospital."

"Oh, yeah." Sakura let out a nervous laugh, twisting a few strands of hair around one finger. Maybe she shouldn't have yelled like that after trying to be nice to a fellow rookie, especially one that had been missing for some time. "So, why is she here?"

Sasuke sighed rather loudly before answering her question, "The Hyuuga Elder was going to place some seal on her when she couldn't protect herself. I'm the one who took her from the hospital to prevent that from happening. She's been staying here ever since. Hinata was still sick at the time so I had to take care of her."

Oh. She felt her body relax at this news. So he was just protecting her. Exactly the sort of thing her Sasuke would do! She smiled at him, glancing over her shoulder at Hinata. "Sorry. It's good to see your doing well."

"Th-thank you," Hinata murmured in reply, her own gaze slipping from hers after a second.

Hmm maybe she had been too hard on her. Well, she did have some good news for Sasuke then if he had to take care of her because of some politicial mess with the Hyuugas.

Sakura turned back to Sasuke with a grin. "You know Kurenai and her team are back, right? They were just coming in from the gates not too long ago, but they'll probably hear about Hinata's supposed kidnapping in a little bit and start looking for her. I doubt it'll take them very long to find her with-"

"Her team is back?" Sasuke interrupted her, staring at her with an intense gaze she had never seen before.

"Yeah."

"Can you and Naruto stay here for a bit? And don't tell the Hyuuga where Hinata is. I need to go and tell them what happened."

"Sure," Sakura managed to say just before Sasuke had opened the door and disappeared from her sight. "I'll see you when you get back!" Sakura called out, already feeling giddy at the prospect of staying in Sasuke's house for any amount of time. Even if it was with Naruto...

"We'll be here!" Naruto called out, apparently having gotten over his sore head now.

She hit him in the head again just to make sure he wouldn't be a complete nuisance and end up destroying anything of Sasuke's before he got back home. He had put the house in  _her_ care after all.

**/ / /**

His footsteps are quick, leaving the brick panes on the roofs of the houses rattling even after he has passed them. Where are they? Where is Hinata's squad?

There's a bark to his right and he stops, turning quickly and raising an arm just as Akamaru jumps from a nearby rooftop to grip his forearm in his jaw. A sigh of relief escapes him at having found them so quickly. Partially because this dog of Kiba's must have been following Hinata's scent to his own house. It explained why the four of them were in the Uchiha Compound anyway.

"Hey Akamaru! This is not time to be playing. We have to find Hinata-" Kiba stopped speaking the moment he was on the same roof as the two of them, sniffing at the air, then his eyes narrowed at Sasuke. "Where is she? What did you do to her?"

"Kiba," Kurenai reprimanded him an instant later as she also landed on the rooftop, the worry for one of her students clear in those red eyes.

Sasuke loosened the muscles in his arm, letting Akamaru know he wasn't a threat so his jaws wound open and release his arm from the confines of sticky dog slobber. That dog must only be able to scent Hinata because it spent so much time around her. There was no other explanation for how it could smell her out with the jutsu he had placed around his house to stop anyone from finding Hinata in such a manner. Most of which he found in books from his parents' room.

"I didn't do anything to her and I would appreciate it if you didn't allow anyone following you to find her at my house."

"No one's following us," Shino said, staring at him with a look that was clearly asking for an explanation.

"Good." Sasuke stepped from the roof, falling between the building to a back alley below. He didn't have to wait long before they joined him where they wouldn't be spotted so easily. Not that anyone usually came into the Uchiha residence except him that is. "Hinata became stable while you were away and was allowed visitors," he began to explain. "Since you weren't here at the time though, Naruto, Sakura, and me were all suppose to go and check on her. The other two got there early and were thrown out by the nurse some time later. I'm not sure how long they were there, but I was only a few minutes late so when they left I entered Hinata's room. She wasn't in critical condition like the nurse had suggested and I would have left her there with my own get well token like originally planned before I heard her grandfather in the hall."

Kiba visibly tensed at these words and though, he couldn't see any change in Shino he was sure the final exam competitor was equally disturbed by this news. Kurenai didn't move a muscle, just continued to gaze at him with those blood red eyes, ones that now held a tinge of disgust in them. Like she knew what he was about to say.

"He was talking about a seal and placing it on Hinata. When I first entered the room she was sleeping, but not too long after she was coming out of it and when she heard him speaking about this seal she practically froze up in terror. I saw this and since the elder was getting closer to the room, telling his companions to hold her down if she struggled. So I took her from the room before that could happen. She only had a small cold at the time so I hid her in my house. Which is what led to this rumor of her being missing or kidnapped, depending on who you ask."

Kiba's jaw was clenched when he finally stopped speaking, watching them to gauge their reactions.

A moment later Kiba exploded, "That bastard! If I ever get my hands on him for even thinking about putting that seal on Hinata I-I'll... urgh! I can't believe her own grandfather would do such a thing. I thought her father was bad with the way he treats Hinata like she's less than an insect, but this, this is going too far! Sensei," Kiba turned quickly when he spoke to face Kurenai. "Shouldn't we bring this matter to the Hokage? They have no right to even attempt place that seal on her!"

"This isn't a matter concerning the village, Kiba. It's a Hyuuga matter and it stays in their jurisdiction if she gets the seal placed on her or not."

"Are you saying it's okay for them to do that to her! Just because she lost her position as heiress of the clan to her younger sister? That's ridiculous!" Kiba yelled, Akamaru barking in agreement beside the ninja.

"No, I'm not." Kurenai's gaze moved from Kiba to settle on Sasuke. "Thank you for getting Hinata out of there before they placed the seal on her."

Sasuke only gave a nod to acknowledge her words before asking, "What is this seal the elder wants to place on her?"

Kiba spun around to face Sasuke once again, somehow managing to look even more outraged than before. "It's to keep the byakugan sealed after her death, but it can also be used to punish those with it by sending pain signals throughout the body directly to the brain."

_What?_

"That seal is for the Cadet Branch of the house. There's no reason for her to have it," Shino muttered and Sasuke could hear the anger in his own voice, it was filling the air like poison.

"Hinata's of the Main branch." He felt stupid for pointing out such an obvious fact, but he didn't understand why they would place it on her if it's suppose to be used on those other members of the Hyuuga clan.

"Yes," Shino agreed, voice much more calm than Kiba's. It was certainly easier to listen to and didn't make his blood boil quite so fast. "But originally the youngest child has it placed on them at the age of three even if there in the Main Branch, because it's used to control those that aren't an heir. Hinata lost her position, though so her grandfather must want her to take up the seal as tradition would dictate. Like with Hiashi and Hizashi."

But Hiashi wasn't the one pushing this tradition onto Hinata. For whatever reason, he wasn't interested in placing the seal on his daughter. Sasuke rather hoped it was because she was his daughter, but if it was because of the contract between their clans then that was just fine. Still, her father clearly hasn't been treating her well either. What if the contract had something to do with his behavior to Hinata as well? He was fine with trusting the man, but he didn't want Hinata around her father anymore if that's how he treated her.

Sasuke was silent for a moment as he allowed himself to absorb all of this information. "Okay. So you won't tell the Hyuuga where she is then?"

Kiba let out a snort at the suggestion, letting Sasuke know his opinion on that matter quickly enough. Shino simply said, "Of course not."

"I'll need to tell Hiashi." Sasuke felt his heart skip a beat at Kurenai's words.

"I don't want the Hyuuga to know where she is!" They have no buisness knowing where she is! Couldn't his sister's squad leader see that?

Kurenai sighed, eyes closing a second later. "I'm not going to tell her grandfather or the rest of the clan anything other than she's okay if they ask me about her whereabouts. It's her father's right to know where she is, though. Surely it's fine if he knows?" Her eyes opened them, challenging him to go against her judgement.

But he didn't have a single problem with that proposed plan. "That's fine."

"I'll see you later, then." Kurenai jumped upwards a second later, probably heading toward the Hyuuga Compound to tell Hinata's father about her whereabouts, whether he cared to know about it or not.

"Are you going to stop us from seeing Hinata as well?"

Sasuke glanced away from the open air to Shino. "No. You can come over whenever you like."

"Then you do realize that the Hyuuge Clan will eventually learn where Hinata is once she starts going on her missions again or sees her with us around the village?"

"Yeah," Sasuke replied. He just didn't want them to know right away, let that grandfather of hers squirm a bit more.

"Well then, let's go."

Sasuke was about to nod his head, but stopped himself, focusing his gaze on both of his fellow ninja. "You won't let her grandfather near her, will you?" As much as he wanted to keep an eye on her and fulfill his promise to Itachi he couldn't be there all the time.

"He'll have to use his best jutsu techniques if he wants to get anywhere near Hinata," Kiba said, forming a fist with one hand to strike at his own open palm a moment later.

Sasuke allowed himself to nod his head then. He wouldn't need to be at her side constantly then with these two looking out for her. He took off down the alley then, making his way back to his own house.

He slammed to a stop just before he ran into the door. Sasuke could hear Sakura raging at Naruto for something beyond the door and he instantly regretted letting that particular idiot into his house. He slid the door open, taking one step into the house to asses just what was going on.

It didn't take long for him to figure out what was wrong, though. Hinata was still on the couch, now curled against the arm of it, furthest from the other two. Sakura's shouts at Naruto for breaking a glass were even louder now. All it took was one step to get close enough to Naruto, to grasp at the back of his bright ass jacket and tug him up from the ground, throwing the pest over his shoulder and out the door with his own yell, "Get  _out_ of my house!"

The collision of Naruto encountering the wall beyond him rang in his ears for a moment, it was followed by a thump quickly after as Naruto must have slid down the stone to hit the ground.

"Sasuke!" Sakura was moving quickly over to him, but stopped when his gaze landed on her.

"I need to go and train with Kakashi soon. So leave, for now." He almost bit his tongue to keep his anger from seeping through into his voice. None of which really had to do with Naruto, but what he had learned not too long ago about Hinata and that seal. "Hinata," he turned his gaze to her now as Sakura walked past him and out of the house, probably going to see if Naruto was okay now. "Your squad is here."

Hinata wasn't looking at him, though, but past him to the open door. "Kiba. Shino."

"Sorry we took so long getting back, Hinata." Kiba's voice told him that the ninja was grinning when he spoke, hiding the anger that had been there not too long ago.

"Want to take a walk?" Shino asked.

"Uh," Hinata's gaze moved from her squad to Sasuke and he gave a nod of his head. He had led them here, so he didn't have a problem with her leaving with them at the moment. Since he was going to be training with Kakashi again it was better she had someone to protect her while her grandfather was still trying to sniff out her location. "Sure."

"Great." Kiba's words were followed by an enthusiastic bark.

As Hinata was passing by him to exit the building he muttered a quick, "Be back by nightfall."

Hinata paused in her step, glancing to him and giving a small nod in response. "Okay." Then she was out of the house, with Shino and Kiba at her side. She would be fine then. His sister would be fine for now.


End file.
